Straw Hat continues with nostalgic favorite

Screen version was hit for Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn

Minnesota State University Moorhead’s Straw Hat Players Summer Theatre continues its 50th anniversary season with Same Time Next Year, a PG 13-rated comedy that was made into a hit movie in 1978, starring Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn. The show opens Tuesday, July 9, and continues through Friday, July 12 on the Gaede Stage in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts.

The play follows a love affair between Doris and George, who rendezvous once a year. New Jersey accountant George and Oakland housewife Doris meet at a Northern California inn in February 1951. They have an affair, and agree to meet once a year, despite the fact both are married to others and have six children between them. Over the course of the next 24 years, they develop an emotional intimacy deeper than what one would expect to find between two people meeting for a clandestine relationship just once a year. During the time they spend with each other, they discuss the births, deaths, and marital problems each is experiencing at home, while they adapt themselves to the social changes affecting their lives. Twenty-five years of manners and morals are hilariously and touchingly played out by the lovers. The play runs from July 9 to 12 on the Gaede Stage.

The play starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available online at www.mnstate.edu/strawhat, or by calling the MSUM Box Office Monday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 218.477.2271.