A new season for the GhostLight Theater in Benton Harbor is about to get started.
Theater manager Paul Mow tells us this is the sixth season for the non-profit venue, and it continues to expand. Shows are planned for most of the year, starting with Clyde’s, a play by Lynn Nottage, which will run from February 13 to February 23. Mow says the show debuted on Broadway in 2022 and is all set in a diner.
“Five actors, five characters, all working in a truck stop diner kitchen,” Mow said. “It all takes place in the back of a kitchen and all five of these characters at different points in their lives have been incarcerated. So it’s kind of a depiction of folks trying to reenter society.”
Mow says the play features a multi-racial cast and explores the challenges someone in their 40s or 50s might face trying to turn their life around with the odds stacked against them.
With the curtain to rise soon, the GhostLight has been hopping.
“The set’s being built and the set’s being painted and costumes are being discussed. Auditions happened in December, and so we had the director and a couple of the folks working on auditions. There’s definitely a hum, there’s definitely a buzz.”
Mow says when the GhostLight first opened, it only had shows a few months out of the year, but this year they’ll be in operation from February through late November. Other shows planned for 2025 include The Last Five Years, Rent, The Wolves, Chess, and The Thanksgiving Play. Stay tuned to the GhostLight’s website for audition information.
Mow says more announcements will be coming later in the year as the GhostLight launches a capital campaign to expand, possibly by purchasing the property next door.
