Forst Inn sets the stage for a busy 2025 season

The Forst Inn is preparing to launch its 2025 performance season packed with 12 shows — a number which far exceeds most typical community theater lineups.

“We have this space and we like to keep it busy,” said Forst Inn Executive Director Michael Sheeks. “Over the course of our season, which runs from March through December, we do about 12 fully staged pieces… That’s a little bit different — traditional amateur community theaters will typically have three, four, maybe five shows in a season.”

This year, the Forst Inn has plans to put on Alice By Heart, opening March 29; A Doll’s House, opening April 26; Guys on Ice, opening May 13; The Revolutionists, opening May 24; Blithe Spirit, opening Aug. 9; Swing!, opening Sept. 6; And Then There Were None, opening Oct. 4; Sweeney Todd, opening Nov. 1; and A Musings Sherlock Holmes, opening Dec. 6.

“Our goal is to do a balance of shows that people might not see someplace else,” Sheeks said. “We’re looking to kind of push the envelope around and see what we can do that will still have some audience. We like to do some kind of classic play every year... Then we usually do a couple of musicals and lately we’ve been doing a kind of horror show in the fall.”

In addition to producing shows audiences may not have seen before, the Forst Inn will also be producing a handful of never-before-seen shows this summer.

These new works — Broken Hill by Jim Lundy, Hellbent by Kim Ruyle and Throwing Stones at the Sun by Jace Seavers — will be presented throughout June and July.

“There’s a lot of things that I’m pretty excited about at the moment,” Sheeks said. “I’m particularly excited that in our new play series that happens in June and July, there’s a piece that is a new musical and it’s called Throwing Stones at the Sun. It’s a musical comedy about the Spanish Inquisition. It’s funny and has really good music with a kind of jazz flavor. The overall vibe of the show is a little bit Monty Python. It’s a new work and it’s in pretty good shape so I’m excited about casting that and seeing if we can make that a polished new work.”

With a robust lineup of shows set for 2025, Sheeks said it isn’t uncommon for two or more shows to be in various stages of production at the same time.

“It’s a busy place out here,” he said. “For instance, right at this moment our first show, Alice by Heart, is into their initial music and movement rehearsals. A Doll’s House had an early dramaturgical rehearsal, but really won’t start rehearsing until later. And then The Revolutionists, which is our third show, is in the process of auditioning. At any given moment, there’s usually at least two, possibly three shows that are in some form of preparation for performance. Our long-term goal is to build an additional facility on our grounds but in the meantime, because we have the pub and we have a pretty big building, we’re able to have multiple rehearsals happening at the same time… Of course we have a production calendar where we try to organize all that. And over the course of the year, we have 70 different actors and production artists involved in producing these shows.”

And it’s those people, Sheeks said, that make the Forst Inn and its upcoming season possible.

“In any given community, you have a certain number of people who could have been professionals, had they decided they wanted to live that lifestyle,” he said. “But it’s a tough lifestyle. A lot of people do their training — they go and study theater and study music — and they get done with that and they realize, ‘I don’t want that life,’ and so they end up working in a more traditional business environment and a more traditional career. But they still have that passion. Those are the people that make amateur theaters work.”

Learn more about the Forst Inn and its 2025 season, including dates and ticket information for upcoming shows, at forstinn.org.