From my Inbox to you: Studio Roanoke has announced its 2011-12 season.

2011-12 Mainstage Season

August 10-21, 2011

Man with Wings by Ben R. Williams Directed by Kenley Smith

In 1971, a small-town sheriff bears witness to a tragic and inexplicable event. Forty years later, a free-lance writer and investigator

of unexplained phenomena arrives at the sheriff’s run-down apartment, desperate to learn the truth behind the so-called

“Thunderbird Incident.” But the answer the sheriff offers may not be what the writer hoped for; the truth may be worse by far.

September 21-October 2, 2011

Zombie Boyfriend! Music, book and lyrics by Will Coleman and Chandler Davis

After a tragic accident, a naive college girl makes a deal with the devil to bring her boyfriend back from the dead. She gets more than she bargained for, however, when he comes back as a zombie. As the zombie infection spreads, she and her friends must battle the forces of darkness to save themselves…and the world. Rock on!

November 30-December 11, 2011

The Crimes & Confessions of Kip Knutzen: A Hockey Way of Knowledge by Deke Weaver

It’s 1978. The Demon’s high school hockey coach is Kip Knutzen. He lives in Devil Lakes, Minnesota, with his wife Katie and their twin teen daughters Heidi and Helga. The Demon’s captain is Tool Halvorson. The Twins read minds. Pheasants talk to Kip. And Tool can seduce anything on the planet – dead or alive. But it’s no big deal. This is Minnesota. It’s normal. It’s probably as normal as can be.

The Crimes & Confessions of Kip Knutzen is a hilarious, dark quest for soul, truth and love in the fish-huts, church youth-groups, rabid hockey arenas and frozen prairies of a small northern Minnesota town. It’s equal parts John Irving, Fargo, Carlos Castaneda, Slap Shot, Kevin Kling and early Garrison Keillor.

February 1-12, 2012

The Emancipation of Alabaster McGill by Jeff Goode Directed by Cheryl Snodgrass

The city’s most eligible sea captain, the deacon of the local church brothel and your friendly neighborhood Klansman band together to save the town of Mud Hill from becoming just another Slippery Slope. Ripped from the headlines (of 1863)!

March 7-18, 2012

Nobody Gets Paid by Ellen Struve Musical direction by William Penn

Take a glimpse backstage, where musicians sing their songs in prose, using humor, candor and a fair amount of foul language. Whether the trial is quitting cigarettes, surviving a cruise ship gig or dealing with the day job, the characters tell us what makes the jazz life worth the struggle.

April 11-22, 2012

Monkey Wrench by Kenley Smith

“This is your chance to learn heartwarmin’ life lessons from a down-on-his-luck curmudgeon,” the title character tells a jaded real estate developer. Is it a Hallmark moment, or one man’s surreal nightmare? Good times!

May 16-27, 2012

57 Hours in the House of Culture by Dwayne Yancey

In October 2002, Chechen terrorists seized a theatre in Moscow and hundreds died during a failed rescue attempt involving poison gas. Now, night after night, the ghosts of the dead theatre-goers relive the terrifying experience of being held hostage.

June 20-July 1, 2012

To the New Girl From the Former Mrs. ___________: Sound Advice for My Husband’s New Wife or Mistress by Samantha Macher

Ten women give considered advice – sometimes poignant, sometimes hilarious – to their husbands’ new flames.

Special performances

July 1-2, 2011

Messages to You Written and directed by Sunny da Silva

A lonely young woman tries to communicate with her love through the computer screen with the help of a few musical numbers and “’The Braidies”’ – her six guinea pigs.

November 3-6, 2011

Deke Weaver’s Other Animals: dark funny disturbing monologs and stupid tasteless videos Writer-performer-media-artist-former-goaltender Deke Weaver’s solo performance tastes a little bit like Monty Python, a little like Spalding Gray with a hint of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The evening bubbles with the gothic (a heartbreaking love triangle: a fuzzy kitty, a fuzzy puppy and an evil vampire pig), the tragic (a tale of disaster: a park ranger presents an aviary of hawks and eagles to an elementary school assembly), and the mythic (a lean haunting parable of a bottomless appetite and the beast within). Weaver has presented versions of Other Animals in Cardiff, Wales; New York; San Francisco, the Midwest and New England.