For the next several months Alchemy and the crew of the previous season's Hay Fever would work to bring two pilot episodes of a new television show to fruition: equity by Mike Murdock, a hilarious look into the lives of the performers and staff of a professional regional theatre company as their world is turned upside-down.

The 5th Annual WV Shakespeare Festival would open in August with a raft of workshops and special guests at Huntington City Hall. Festival goers came in droves to see Alchemy's production of Return to the Forbidden Planet, a jukebox musical based loosely on the 1956 film Forbidden Planet and riddled with references to Shakespeare's works. Alchemy would also debut an abridged production of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, which would then travel to area schools as part of Alchemy's Shakespeare on the Road program.

October brought audiences to the edge of their seats with the thriller Wait Until Dark, a stage adaptation of the acclaimed film. Finally, Alchemy would close out the season with a bang with a Season's Greetings Holiday Cabaret and season announcement party, followed by A Cozy Wedding, the second in a series of Hallmark Channel-inspired plays by local playwrights Mike Murdock and Simon Woods.

Then Everything Changed

In March Alchemy entered into a lease agreement for the old Geneva Kent Elementary School in the crossroads community of Huntington!! We finally found our home! The first month was a flurry of activity, as Alchemists and local businesses worked feverishly to prepare the old building for Alchemy's first show of the season - Private Wars. Inspections, SO much cleaning, renovation of the gym into a black box theater and the creation of a front lobby space, not to mention moving all of our gear from scattered storage units (and space loaned by our good friends at First Stage Theatre Company!), it was an enormous undertaking... but it paid off.

In June, Alchemy kicked off the 6th Annual WV Shakespeare Festival with numerous workshops and presentations from invited scholars and community organizations, as well as a bazaar of products hand-crafted by local artisans. As part of the festivities Alchemy produced Bright Star, a beautifully touching and critically acclaimed musical written by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, to sold out crowds. Inspired by a true story, Bright Star tells a deeply emotional tale of love, loss, and redemption in the early 20th century's American South, and was a beatiful cap to the summer festival.

Not done with June yet, Alchemy launched its first Kids Theatre Intensive - a full week of classes and workshops for children. We had a blast with these kids, and capped off their week with a public performance showcasing what they'd learned in an evening of monologues and a full short play featuring costumes and set pieces made by the kids themselves!

With too many offerings to be contained in the summer WV Shakes Festival, Alchemy launched the Fall WV Shakespeare Festival! More classes and workshops from scholars and community organizations filled the festival, and during the next two months a group of talented Alchemists headed out on tour. Carrying on the previous season's Shakespeare on the Road program, these actors would visit multiple area schools as well as the Governor's School for the Arts to present an abridged production of Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. It was a distinct pleasure to perform for hundreds of students, many of whom had never seen live theatre before, and discuss the play with them afterward.

Ending the year with a bang, Alchemy finished out the season with its Season's Greetings Cabaret and the final installment in the locally written hallmarkian comedy trilogy, A Cozy Finale. Fun for the whole family and an audience favorite, A Cozy Finale wrapped up the story of our Cozy friends and neighbors with a bow (get it?). Ending the series after spending the previous two Christmases in Cozy's Hallmark-inspired world was bittersweet. So... why leave?! During the Season's Greetings Cabaret Alchemy announced the 2024 season of shows, including a REAL Cozy Christmas Festival!

June also featured the powerful and timely The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, reinforcing Alchemy's dedication to intellectually challenging and socially relevant work. In July, the company mounted the critically acclaimed musical Something Rotten! as part of the WV Shakespeare Festival, drawing large audiences and further elevating Alchemy's reputation for high-quality musical theatre.

The fall season maintained strong audience engagement with the hit comedy Nunsense in September, followed in October by the Apprentice Academy's high-energy youth comedy Cheerleaders vs. Aliens. During the fall, Alchemy's Shakespeare on the Road program toured Hamlet to area schools as part of the WV Shakespeare Festival Fall Fest, expanding access to classical theatre for students throughout the region.