Theatre in the Square launches fall season with locomotion

Marietta’s Theatre in the Square will open its 2010-11 season, its 29th, with a world premiere about some history that touches close to home.

Phillip DePoy’s “Stealing Dixie,” Aug. 4-Sept. 12, will dramatize the story behind the Great Locomotive Chase. Andrews’ Raiders, a band of Union soldiers and sympathizers, plotted to steal the Confederate locomotive the General in what is now known as the Kennesaw House, near Theatre in the Square.

Jessica Phelps West will direct, and DePoy will provide music direction, for “Stealing Dixie,” which will feature Civil War-era music.

The General is now one of the prime attractions of the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in nearby Kennesaw.

Also in Theatre in the Square’s recently announced 2010-11 Main Stage lineup:

• Leonard Gross' "Conversations With My Wife," a world premiere directed by Heidi Cline, Sept. 29-Oct. 31.

• "The 39 Steps," adapted by Patrick Barlow and directed by Clint Thornton, Jan. 19-Feb. 20.

• Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes," directed by Fred Chappell, March 9-April 10.

• Annie Baker's "Circle Mirror Transformation," directed by Susan Reid, April 27-May 29.

Theatre in the Square also will mount the children’s production “How I Became a Pirate,” directed by Clint Thornton with musical direction by Thom Jenkins, Sept. 14-Oct. 10 on the more intimate Alley Stage.

The holidays will bring “Sanders Family Christmas,” back for its 12th year, on the Main Stage, Nov. 23-Jan. 2; and “A Tuna Christmas” on the Alley Stage, Nov. 16-Jan. 2.

In fact, the comic foibles of tiny Tuna, Texas, are also being spun this summer in “Greater Tuna,” June 23-July 18, also on the Main Stage.