Covid-19 Policy Fall 2022 >> Learn More

May 12-28

Xanadu (2023)

Based on the 1980 cult classic of the same name, this musical is sure to “roll” into your hearts at the first note! It’s your typical story: boy meets Muse, Muse inspires boy, Muse and boy team up to create GREAT ART in the form of converting an old theatre into a roller disco.
Pull out your legwarmers and neon jackets for this Tony Award-nominated musical and our 94th season finale!

TICKETS ON SALE April 24, 2023

Thank you to our Performance Sponsors

Season 2022/2023

Entertaining - Challenging - Inspiring

The Very Little Theatre has produced plays every year since our founding in 1929 – through the Great Depression, a World War, a great recession, and most recently pivoting to online and parking lot performances so we could continue producing during Covid. We just can’t help ourselves – we love making and sharing theatre.

We welcome you back to our newly renovated Main Stage Theatre for a season full of comedy,
mystery, touching drama, fantasy, and TWO great musicals.

Main stage

August
5 – 20

October
14 – 30

January 20 –
February 5

March 17 –
April 2

May
12 – 28

CLICK EACH IMAGE FOR A FULL DESCRIPTION.

February
17 – 26
2023

April
14 – 23
2023

STAGE LEFT

SPECIAL
EVENTS

September
23 – 25
2022

November
12 – 13
2022

STAGE LEFT

February
17 – 26
2023

April
14 – 23
2023

SPECIAL EVENTS

September
23 – 25
2022

November
12 – 13
2022

Join Us

New Members Welcome

The Very Little Theatre is run by its Members, and has been since its founding in March, 1929.
Members are the backbone of the organization, responsible for everything from choosing the plays we present to electing our board of directors, from build sets and costumes to greeting our audiences on the nights of performances, and creating the policies that keep us all feeling welcome and safe.
We have fun making theatre. Please consider joining us.

Supporting Roles

Sponsors & Grantors

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Very Little Theatre would like to acknowledge that our building sits on the traditional Indigenous homelands of the Kalapuya peoples. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855, Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to what is now the Grand Ronde and Siletz Reservations in Western Oregon. Today, descendants are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. We share this information out of humility and respect for this indigenous homeland, and for the Kalapuya peoples who continue to live and thrive in what is now called the State of Oregon.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Very Little Theatre would like to acknowledge that our building sits on the traditional Indigenous homelands of the Kalapuya peoples. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855, Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to what is now the Grand Ronde and Siletz Reservations in Western Oregon. Today, descendants are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. We share this information out of humility and respect for this indigenous homeland, and for the Kalapuya peoples who continue to live and thrive in what is now called the State of Oregon.

Little Women

The Musical

Book by Allan Knee

Lyrics by Mindi Dickstein
Music by Jason Howland
Directed by Kari Boldon Welch

Rebellious Jo March and her sisters have delighted readers for decades in the beloved novel Little Women, known all around the world as a fierce story about an extraordinary family.

This Tony Award-winning musical brings the story of the March sisters to life. Featuring many of the original cast members from the pandemic-halted March 2020 production, Little Women, the Musical really is “Astonishing!”

August 5-20

Tickets Go On Sale July 18, 2022

Murder on the Orient Express

Adapted for the stage
by Ken Ludwig

Directed by Maggie Hadley

Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside.
Isolated and with a killer in their midst, the passengers rely on detective Hercule Poirot to identify the murderer – in case they decide to strike again.
This new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic novel perfectly balances mystery and comedy to create a deeply enjoyable evening at the theatre.

October 14-30

Tickets Go On Sale September 26, 2022

A Lesson
Before Dying

By Romulus Linney, Based on the Novel by Ernest J. Gaines

Directed by Hershell Norwood

Jefferson, an innocent young Black man, is condemned to death in backwoods Louisiana in 1948. At the trial his lawyer, trying to save his life, called him no more a human being than a hog.
In prison, he acts like one, insisting that he will be dragged like that hog to his death in the electric chair. His godmother asks a struggling schoolteacher to teach him to die like a man. The teacher, Grant Wiggins, faces both Jefferson and himself as execution day arrives.
Ernest J. Gaines’ celebrated novel makes an engrossing, moving and deeply important play.

January 20 - February 5

Tickets Go On Sale January 2, 2023

Prelude
to a Kiss

By Craig Lucas

Directed by Darlene Rhoden

This is the story of Peter and Rita, a couple that falls in love despite Rita’s pessimistic fear of the world. Shortly after their wedding, a supernatural event tests the strength of their love and commitment to each other.
At times funny, heartbreaking, and revelatory, Prelude to a Kiss explores themes of love and loss, and the many ways we view the people dearest to us.

March 17 - April 2

Tickets Go On Sale February 27, 2023

Xanadu

Book by Douglas Carter Beane

Music & Lyrics by
Jeff Lynne & John Farrar

Directed by Russell Dyball

Based on the 1980 cult classic of the same name, this musical is sure to “roll” into your hearts at the first note! It’s your typical story: boy meets Muse, Muse inspires boy, Muse and boy team up to create GREAT ART in the form of converting an old theatre into a roller disco. Pull out your legwarmers and neon jackets for this Tony Award-nominated musical and our 94th season finale!

May 12-28

Tickets Go On Sale April 24, 2023

Ladies
Shakespeare
Club

By Dorothy Velasco

Directed by Karen Scheeland

Raucously funny, a bit bawdy, and full of action, surprises, and laughter through tears. A women’s Shakespeare study group learns how to face life’s afflictions with humor.

February 17-26

Tickets Go On Sale January 30, 2023

Cat Lady

By Jen Ferro

Directed by Kali Kardas

The story of a woman who can’t help herself because she helps everyone else. Cats and humans run amok in this hilarious and heartfelt play about family and relationships.

April 14-23

Tickets Go On Sale March 27, 2022

Minority Voices Theatre

MVT is proud to produce a weekend with illioo Native Theatre as we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Klamath River fish kill with a reading of the play Salmon is Everything by Theresa May in collaboration with the Klamath Theatre Project.
The play follows the story of three families on the Klamath River during the drought, salmon crisis, and devastating fish kill of 2002. Its message about the kinship among salmon, people and the land is as relevant today – for all great rivers in the Pacific Northwest — as it was 20 years ago.

September 23-25

Tickets Go On Sale September 5, 2022

Minority Voices Theatre

MVT presents is an evening of one-acts. In Hattie’s Vote, by local playwright Dorothy Velasco, we meet Hattie Redmond, a Black woman who was instrumental in the fight for Oregon women’s suffrage. Nat Turner’s Last Struggle: Finding His Way Home by P.A. Wray, explores the final hour of the life of Nat Turner, an enslaved preacher who led one of the bloodiest slave rebellions in the American South, as he searches for meaning on the day of his execution.

November 12-13

Tickets Go On Sale October 24, 2022