STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Spot will present a Stephen Sondheim musical as part of 2023-24 season.

The “Assassins,” originally produced in 1990, explores America’s fascination with firearms via musical theater.

“We at The Spot know that our work isn’t for everyone…but we try to find the stories our community needs to hear,” said Co-founder Yanna Lantz. “This is among my top three musicals of all time. And it shows the dark side of the American dream.”

The Spot pulled back the curtain on its new season Sunday evening at its annual fundraiser on Richard and Penny Weiss’s beautiful lawn along the Big Wood River.

The lineup:

• STUDIO SERIES, August 2023

  Spot Young Company Alumni will have a chance to experiment and produce one or more new plays.

  “We don’t know what they will come up with but it will be great,” enthused Samuel Mollner, The Spot’s technical director.

• “ALMA” by Benjamin Benne, September/October 2023

  The Spot read this play before it premiered at Kirk Douglas Theatre and was able to secure the rights for the play, even though they’re not publicly available.

  It’s a gripping tale about the love between a mother--an undocumented immigrant who is studying for her citizenship-- and her American-born daughter who is getting ready to take her SAT exam, said The Spot’s Brett Moellenberg.

  Benne, a Yale School of Drama graduate whose mother came from Guatemala, addresses anti-Hispanic  rhetoric and immigration through mother and daughter who argue about how best to achieve the American dream and just how much value that American dream actually has in today’s world.  

• “ALICE BY HEART” with music/lyrics by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik and book by Steven Sater with Jessie Nelson, December 2023

  The Spot Young Company’s first production was Steven Sater’s “Spring Awakening,” and it was such an amazing musical that The Spot has been trying to do another of Sater’s musicals ever since, said Kevin Wade.

  “Alive by Heart,” which will feature Spot Young Company, is a reimagining of the “Alice in Wonderland” story as teenagers hiding out from bombings in the tubes of London slowly change into the characters of  Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel. Not only is the story fascinating but the music is “achingly beautiful,” Wade said.

• “ASSASSINS” with music/lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by John Weidman, January 2024

  This somewhat dark yet hilarious musical examines the drive for power and celebrity in America through such assassins as John Wilkes Booth, Squeaky Fromme and John Hinckley Jr. Often seen as Sondheim’s attempt to sound the alarm about the role of guns in American culture, the 2004 Broadway show won five Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical.

• “WOLF PLAY,” by Hansol Jung, April 2024

  This play is about your chosen family and your unchosen family, said Natalie Battistone, who introduced the play with the help of a puppet.

  It revolves around a Korean boy whose American father un-adopts him with a simple signature on a piece of paper. But the ex-father seeks to get the boy back after discovering that the boy’s new parents are lesbians and that the boy will have no “dad.”

  “It is a story of a journey from adoption to re-adoption. And you will not leave this play without being transformed,” Battistone promised.

• “THE GARAGE 2024,” with Playwright Abby Rosebrock, TBA

The Spot staged Brooklyn-based playwright Abby Rosebrock’s “Dido of Idaho,” about a musicologist who competes with a former Miss Idaho for the love of a married English professor in 2017. She will be here at the end of The Spot season while she creates a new play.

The Spot didn’t have the money to buy the rights to “Next to Normal,” the first play it staged, Moellenberg told the audience. But it has continued to stage productions with the help of individual donors and donations from such foundations as the Shubert Foundation.

“Now we’re looking forward to our riskiest season ever,” said Moellenberg.

The auctioning of a fondue party for 20 at the Sun Valley Culinary Institute got the fundraising going as it went for $2,600. A handful of nights at a Chelsea apartment in New York coupled with a $1,000 gift certificate for shows and museums went for $5,600.

Kagan Albright planted the seed for the paddle up as he described The Spot as a place where people learn who they are, where they learn that individuality is a beautiful thing and that failure is a necessary first step and where youth has a community where they feel safe and seen.

By the time the last paddle was waved in the air, The Spot had raised $136,000--beyond its $100,000 goal. Those spurring it on included Susan Flynt, who matched fifty $100 contributions, and alumni like Wyatt Root, Albright and Ethan Hunt who donated between $500 and $100 each.

“I think it’s incredible we have this as it gives a lot of young people so much opportunities, said Dave Vik, there with his wife Chris.

Jeanne Robeson echoed their sentiments: “I love everything they do, but especially the musicals. I’m so impressed with how good the acting is.”

Mindy Meads just joined The Spot’s board.

“I’ve been going to their plays for eight years, and they’ve been impressive, especially with the way they survived COVID,” she said. “People need to know that they’re here.”