Center on the Square, White County’s premier performing arts organization, is celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2008-2009, and the year promises to be the Center’s biggest yet. Patrons voted on their favorite shows from the past ten years, and the dinner theater season is made up of the six most popular choices.

Rumors, by Neil Simon, will be presented September 5th-12th. Four couples are at the townhouse of a deputy New York City mayor and his wife to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary. The party never begins because the host has shot himself in the head and his wife is missing. His lawyer's cover up, gets progressively more difficult to sustain as the other guests arrive and nobody can remember who has been told what about whom. Rumors was the theater’s first production in 1999.

Driving Miss Daisy is slated to run October 17th-November 7th. Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Wertham, a rich, sharp-tongued Jewish widow of seventy-two, is informed by her son, Boolie, that henceforth she must rely on the services of a chauffeur. The person he hires for the job is a thoughtful, unemployed black man, Hoke, whom Miss Daisy immediately regards with disdain and who, in turn, is not impressed with his employer's patronizing tone and, he believes, her latent prejudice. This script was the runaway favorite when our audiences voted for their favorite production. The Farndale Avenue Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Presents A Christmas Carol will run December 4th-21st. In a festive mood, the ladies mount another assault on the classics with their stage version of A Christmas Carol. They enthusiastically portray a dizzy array of characters from the Dickensian favorite (and a few which aren't), engineer some novel audience participation while bravely contending with an intrusive PA system. The Farndale ladies wrap their vocal cords and feet around two original, show stopping songs.

The Foreigner will play from January 30th-February 15th. The scene is a fishing lodge in rural Georgia often visited by "Froggy" LeSeuer. This time "Froggy" has brought along a friend, a pathologically shy young man named Charlie who is overcome with fear at the thought of making conversation with strangers. So "Froggy," before departing, tells all assembled that Charlie is from an exotic foreign country and speaks no English. Charlie overhears more than he should, and it fuels the nonstop hilarity of the play, and the "good guys" emerge triumphant.

Steel Magnolias is scheduled for March 27th-April 12th. The action is set in Truvy's beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are "anybody" come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle, the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town's rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, ; and the local social leader, M'Lynn, whose daughter Shelby is about to marry a "good ole boy." The characters all posses a special quality that makes them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.

The season will close with Run for your Wife, May 15th-31st. This superb example of the British farce had them rolling in the aisles in London and New York, as well as at Center on the Square in 2006. A taxi driver gets away with having two wives in different areas of London because of his irregular working schedule. Complication is piled upon complication as the cabby tries to keep his double life from exploding.

In addition to the dinner theater season, two musicals will be produced in the upcoming year. Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella will play August 5th-9th, and Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming will run March 3rd-7th.

Season tickets for the dinner theater season will be available beginning May 15th. This year, in addition to the full 6 show season package, the theater will offer a 3 show “Opening Night Club” package, and a 4 show “Flex Pass” package. Season tickets may be purchased by calling the theater at 501-368-0111.

The Performing Arts Center on the Square is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to the expansion and appreciation of the performing arts in the region.

Contributions are welcome and are tax-deductible. Center on the Square is supported in part by the Arkansas Arts Council, a division of the Arkansas Department of Heritage, and the National Endowment for the Arts.