OUR 2025-2026 SEASON

A Christmas Story November 7th-9th & 14th-16th, 2025	Humorist Jean Shepherds memoir of growing up in the Midwest in the 1940s follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun under the tree for Christmas. Ralphie pleads his case before his mother his teacher and even Santa Claus himself at Higbees Department Store. The consistent response: "Youll shoot your eye out!" All the elements from the beloved motion picture are here including the familys temperamental exploding furnace; Scut Farkas the school bully; the boys experiment with a wet tongue on a cold lamppost; the Little Orphan Annie decoder pin; Ralphies father winning a lamp shaped like a womans leg in a net stocking; Ralphies fantasy scenarios and more. A Christmas Story is destined to become a theatrical holiday perennial. Directed by: Kim Hughart & Carlee Rogers
And Then There Were None February 13th-15th & 20th-22nd, 2026 Presented through special arrangement Concord Theatricals	A group of ten people gather at the mansion on Soldier Island. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal and a secret that will seal their fate. Before the party truly gets under way, a recording plays that accuses each guest of murder. As the weather turns and the group is cut off from the mainland, one by one, they are brutally murdered in accordance with the lines of a sinister nursery rhyme about Ten Little Soldier Boys. Baffled, these strangers realize that they have no idea who their host is, and they understand that they have been brought to the island by a maniac who intends to dispense their own perverted form of justice. Directed by: Ronn Gordon Please be advised that this production includes scenes that may be disturbing to some audience members, including depictions of shooting and hanging.
Steel Magnolias May 8th-10th & 15th-17th, 2026   Presented through special arrangement with Dramatic Publishing.	The action is set in Truvys beauty salon in Chinquapin Louisiana where all the ladies who are anybody come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married) the outspoken wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the towns rich curmudgeon Ouiser ("Im not crazy Ive just been in a bad mood for forty years"); an eccentric millionaire Miss Clairee who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader MLynn whose daughter Shelby (the prettiest girl in town) is about to marry a good ole boy. Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions the play moves toward tragedy when in the second act the spunky Shelby (who is a diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others but also draws on the underlying strength and love which give the play and its characters the special quality to make them truly touching funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad. Directed by: Kim Hughart & Carlee Rogers

All performances are held at the Community Building Complex of Boone County, unless otherwise noted.
111 West First Street | Belvidere IL, 61008

MSP at the Museum

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August 30th-31st, 2025



How to Host a MURDER MYSTERY Dinner Party (In 15 Simple Steps)
What could be more fun than a dinner theatre murder mystery at a how-to seminar about hosting a murder mystery dinner party, complete with audience interaction, information packets with extra clues, and multiple endings?! Host Miss Penelope Chrysler-Michelin presents her proven, fifteen-step process on how to host a murder mystery dinner party to your audience, the dinner guests at her seminar. To guide them through the presentation, Miss Penelope has planned her own murder mystery dinner party to play out onstage. She takes guests through all the most important steps, such as Setting the Scene, Choosing Your Mark, Establishing Motive, and more. Of course, her guest list has been carefully selected to make sure the very best mix of suspicious characters are present The Celebrity, The Writer, The Doctor, The Ladykiller. But like any good murder mystery, the weather worsens and the plot thickens when there is an unexpected visitor on the dark and stormy night. Good thing Miss Penelope has thought of everything, including Step Eight: Always Have a Backup Plan. Can anyone really be trusted at this devious dinner party?

 

These performances will be at the Boone County Museum of History

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December 6th-7th, 2025 Saturday at 7:00pm and Sunday at 2:00pm                                     
                                                                                                                                                                                                     

 

Its a Wonderful Life. The Radio play



This beloved American holiday classic comes to captivating life as a live 1940s radio broadcast. With the help of an ensemble that brings a few dozen characters to the stage the story of idealistic George Bailey unfolds as he considers ending his life one fateful Christmas Eve.
Directed by: John B. Van Nest

These performances will be at the Boone County Museum of History

June 19th-21st, 2026 Friday & Saturday at 7:00pm and Sunday at 2:00pm

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Divorce Southern Style

An established favorite with stock theatres this fast-paced wildly funny farce centers on the zany schemes of a middle-aged divorcee who decides that the time is ripe to get back together with her ex-husband. Divorced for fifteen years and running low on cash Eleanor Bander decides reconciliation with her ex-husband (whose second wife died the year before) is her best hope. To lure him within striking range she tells him that their daughter is about to be married hinting that it is a forced situation when the truth is that the daughter is merely engaged again (for the fifth time) to her long-standing fiance. The ex-husband Walter not only arrives but brings along his current flame a former classmate who was Eleanors competition from high-school days. As the plot thickens which it does with growing hilarity Eleanors friends and neighbors become involved in the action culminating in a surprise birthday party where the truth at last comes out. But Walter is pre-pared to forgive and forget and falls easily into Eleanors trap. So easily in fact that Eleanor is the one who now has second thoughts deciding that it is better after all to stay single and broke than to resume the bickering that drove her away from Walter in the first place.

Directed by: Vince Melillo

These performances will be at the Boone County Museum of History