The Contemporary Theater Company (CTC) is a 501(c)3 non-profit theater company based in South Kingstown,

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

. Founded by Artistic Director Christopher J. Simpson in 2005, the company presents a range of plays throughout South County with an emphasis on reaching first-time theatergoers. The company presents an annual holiday show at the historic waterfront

Towers A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

in Narragansett and produces an annual 24-Hour Play Festival at the South Kingstown High School. The company presents theater, classes and public events at a theater at 327 Main Street in historic downtown

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

that opened in July 2012.

History

The Contemporary Theater Company started as an unincorporated group in 2005 known as The Courthouse Summer Theater Company. Its first production was

Rumors A rumor (American English), or rumour (British English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences; derived from Latin 'noise'), is an unverified piece of information circulating among people, especial ...

Neil Simon Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He received three ...

in the summer of 2005. The company incorporated on May 30, 2006. The company continued to present shows under the name The Courthouse Theater Company at the Courthouse Center for the Arts until the end of 2007, when the center established an in-house theater group. In 2009, The Courthouse Theater Company renamed itself The Contemporary Theater Company. It has since produced shows including The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) and

The Gift of the Magi "The Gift of the Magi" is a short story by American writer O. Henry, first published in 1905. The story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little mone ...

. In 2012, the company moved to its current location. It purchased an adjacent property to use as a rehearsal space and patio and in 2018 purchased its main theatre space. An additional renovation and expansion followed. In January 2021, associate artistic director Tammy Brown was promoted to artistic director, tasked with developing a five-year plan for the organization and an expanded mission and vision. She resigned in July, 2024.

Past Seasons

2015 season

* 10th Annual 24 Hour Play Festival * Springboard Season * Golda's Balcony by William Gibson * Lysistrata by Meg Perry * One-Hour Theatre Challenge *

Black Comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

by Peter Shaffer * Buyer and Cellar by Jonathan Tolins * Testing Testing 1234 with the South Kingstown High School Drama Club *

Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial '' The String of Pearls'' (1846–1847). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London legend. A barber from Fleet St ...

by Stephen Sondheim * Planet Christmas by Andy Hoover * 2nd Annual Christmas Cocktail Cabaret

2014 season

* 9th Annual 24 Hour Play Festival * Springboard Season * Cloud 9 by

Caryl Churchill Caryl Lesley Churchill (born 3 September 1938) is a British playwright known for dramatising the abuses of power, for her use of non- naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes.

* The Rescue by Ron Maine *

Noises Off ''Noises Off'' is a 1982 farce by the English playwright Michael Frayn. Frayn conceived the idea in 1970 while watching from the wings a performance of '' The Two of Us'', a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave. He said, "It was funni ...

Michael Frayn Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce ''Noises Off'' and the dramas ''Copenhagen (play), Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy (play), Democracy''. Frayn's novel ...

* Art by

Yasmina Reza Yasmina Reza (; born 1 May 1959) is a French playwright, actress, novelist and screenwriter best known for her plays ''Art (play), 'Art and ''God of Carnage''. Many of her brief satiric plays have reflected on contemporary middle-class issues. ...

* Testing Testing 1234 with the South Kingstown High School Drama Club * The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt * Mrs. Bob Crachit's Wild Christmas Binge by Christopher Durang * 1st Annual Christmas Cocktail Cabaret

2013 season

*8th Annual 24 Hour Play Festival *Springboard Season * God's Ear by Jenny Schwartz * Fuddy Meers by David Lindsay-Abaire * A Flea in Her Ear by

Georges Feydeau Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau (; 8 December 1862 – 5 June 1921) was a French playwright of the Belle Époque era, remembered for his farces, written between 1886 and 1914. Feydeau was born in Paris to middle-class parents and raised in a ...

, translated by David Ives *Bob by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb *Testing Testing 1234 with the South Kingstown High School Drama Club * Assassins (musical) by

Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March22, 1930November26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. He received Lis ...

*The Gift of the Magi by Spencer Curry

2012 season

*7th Annual 24 Hour Play Festival *Your Friends and Neighbors Present: Paradise Park by Charles Mee *

Is He Dead? ''Is He Dead?'' is a play by Mark Twain based on his earlier 1893 short story. The play, written by Twain in 1898, was first published in print in 2003 after Mark Twain scholar Shelley Fisher Fishkin read the manuscript in the archives of the Ma ...

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

* The Foreigner by Larry Shue * The Cmpleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (abridged) by The Reduced Shakespeare Company *Testing Testing 1234 with the South Kingstown High School Drama Club *The Tempest by William Shakespeare *Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory by

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime Flying ace, fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies ...

– in partnership with GEAR productions *The Gift of the Magi by Andy Hoover

2011 season

*6th Annual 24 Hour Play Festival *

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

*Composition by Andy Hoover *30 Neofuturist Plays from Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind by The Neofuturists *

Red Herring A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences toward a false conclusion. A red herring may be used intentiona ...

by Michael Hollinger *

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical ...

by Shawn Fennell *Testing Testing 1234 with the South Kingstown High School Drama Club *

Eurydice Eurydice (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρυδίκη 'wide justice', classical pronunciation: ) was a character in Greek mythology and the wife of Orpheus, whom Orpheus tried to bring back from the dead with his enchanting music. Etymology Several ...

by Sarah Ruhl * Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge by

Christopher Durang Christopher Ferdinand Durang (January 2, 1949 – April 2, 2024) was an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s, though his career seemed to get a second wind in th ...

2010 season

*5th Annual 24 Hour Play Festival * The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown * The Real Inspector Hound by

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...

* The Glass Menagerie by

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...

Waiting for Godot ''Waiting for Godot'' ( or ) is a 1953 play by Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett, in which the two main characters, Vladimir (Waiting for Godot), Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters w ...

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

– in partnership with GEAR Productions *The Gift of the Magi by Andy Hoover

2009 season

*4th Annual 24 Hour Play Festival * The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by The Reduced Shakespeare Company *Noises Off by Michael Frayn * Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring *

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...

Mary Zimmerman Mary Zimmerman (born August 23, 1960) is an American theatre and opera director and playwright from Nebraska. She is an ensemble member of the Lookingglass Theatre Company, the Manilow Resident Director at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinoi ...

*The Gift of the Magi by Andy Hoover

2008 season

*3rd Annual 24 Hour Play Festival *Color Theory – an original production *30 Neofuturist Plays from Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind by The Neofuturists

2007 season

*2nd Annual 24 Hour Play Festival * The Matchmaker by

Thornton Wilder Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, for the novel ''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and ''The Skin of Our Teeth'', and a U. ...

*Set & Drift by Andy Hoover

2006 season

*24 Hour Play Festival *

Proof Proof most often refers to: * Proof (truth), argument or sufficient evidence for the truth of a proposition * Alcohol proof, a measure of an alcoholic drink's strength Proof may also refer to: Mathematics and formal logic * Formal proof, a co ...

by David Auburn * You Can't Take It with You by George S. Kaufman and

Moss Hart Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961) was an American playwright, librettist, and theater director. Early years Hart was born in New York City, the son of Lillian (Solomon) and Barnett Hart, a cigar maker. He had a younger brother ...

2005 season

Awards and nominations

" Rhode Island Monthly Editor's Pick" 2012 Arts Revitalization Award Providence Phoenix: The Best of RI 2011 :Best Theater Company (won) MoreTeeth's Most Teeth Theater Awards May 2010 – May 2011 :Best Play (Drama): Romeo and Juliet (nominated) ::::::Waiting for Godot (nominated) :Best Director: Ryan Hartigan, Waiting for Godot (won) :::::Amy Lee Connell, Shawn Fennell, Nevan Michael Richard & Christopher J. Simpson, Romeo and Juliet (nominated) :Best Dramatic Performance (Female): Amy Lee Connell, Romeo and Juliet (nominated) :Best Dramatic Performance (Male): Stephen Strenio, Waiting for Godot (won) :Best Supporting Dramatic Performance (Female): Amy Lee Connell, Romeo and Juliet (nominated) :Best Supporting Dramatic Performance (Male): Maxwell Matthews, Waiting for Godot (nominated) 2011 Motif Magazine Theatre Awards :Best Supporting Male: Christopher J. Simpson, Waiting for Godot (won)http://www.motifmagazine.net/ '' Motif'' Southern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce's 2011 Chamber Impact Awards :Excellence in Innovation Award (won) Providence Phoenix: The Best of RI 2010 :Best New & Yummy Theater Troupe (won) 2009 Motif Magazine Theatre Awards :Best Supporting Female: Meghan Rose Donnelly, Noises Off (nominated)

Organization

The CTC is led by an eleven-member board of directors and Artistic Director Christopher J. Simpson. In 2009, Simpson won a fellowship from Princeton University to help grow the company.

References

External links

The Contemporary Theater Company
{{DEFAULTSORT:Contemporary Theater Company Theatre companies in Rhode Island Washington County, Rhode Island South Kingstown, Rhode Island 2005 establishments in Rhode Island