McLean Community Players to Bring 'Calendar Girls' to Alden Theater Stage

Image: McLean Community Players’ Sam David, Liz Weber, Jennifer Greene, Kathryn Johnston, Shayne Gardner, and Diane Sams in a recent rehearsal (McLean Community Players).

The McLean Community Players are returning to the stage this fall to perform one of the most popular plays in British theater history.

The ensemble is performing Tim Frith’s Calendar Girls, an adaptation of a film by the same name, and will be the first group to perform the play in the Northern Virginia region.

Opening night is scheduled for Sept. 18 in Alden Theater at the McLean Community Center. The show will run through Oct. 3 with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.

Tickets range from $18-20 and are available at the Alden Theater box office and the McLean Community Players’ website. The group is also encouraging patrons to donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in addition to purchasing a ticket.

“It is always a challenge and a privilege to do the first area production of a play,” said director Bob Sams. “I am fortunate to have such a talented, dedicated and brave cast and production staff.”

Calendar Girls is set in Yorkshire and focuses on two female friends, Chris and Annie. When Annie’s husband dies of leukemia, the two women attempt to raise money for a local hospital and ultimately are successful after releasing a calendar featuring nude women.

The calendar creates quite a stir and challenges Chris and Annie’s friendship, among other things.

“Many people think of Calendar Girls as a show about semi-clad women on a calendar,” Sams said. “It is much more. It is a show about love, and what love makes you do for those you love. It is about how seemingly small actions can have the most unexpected and far reaching consequences. This is an important play and I am so proud to be doing it.”

The McLean Community Players perform four shows each year: two plays and two musicals. The ensemble’s last performance before the upcoming premier of Calendar Girls was Jesus Christ, Superstar, which ran for two weeks on the Alden Theater stage in July.