Thirty years ago, America was facing escalating gas prices and Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite" became the first show produced by Bismarck's Dakota Stage Ltd.

Three decades later, those topics are again newsworthy.

Dakota Stage will celebrate its 30th season in 2008-09. Gas is back in the headlines and "Plaza Suite" will be back in Bismarck.

Neil Simon's comedy will wrap up the next season of shows, the theater announced this week. Also on the bill for the pearl anniversary are "Nunsense," "A Christmas Story," "Whose Wives are They Anyway?"and "Death Trap."

"I'm very pumped about the season," Brian Brady, DSL's artistic director, said. "We were talking about it at the board meeting the other night, and everybody feels really good about it. The season brings a good balance of age of characters for both men and women; we're a little heavy on the comedy side, but that's OK."

If the lineup is heavy one way or another, the audience has only itself to blame. Theatergoers made the final selections about what will take the stage next season.

"This year we had our audience help choose (the shows)," Brady said. "We offered them a top-10 list, and had them vote on what they'd like to see come back."

Each show in the list was one Dakota Stage has produced in the last 30 years. "Nunsense" took top honors, so it will kick off the season on Oct. 16. "Plaza Suite" was a close second, and the board decided to close the season with that on May 17, 2009.

"Since 'Plaza Suite' was in our very first season, we thought it was apropos to include that as one of the selections," Brady said. "We're going to kick off the year with the audience favorite, then cap off our 30th year with a show from our first season."

The full schedule:

* "Nunsense" - Oct. 16-19, 22-26

* "A Christmas Story" - Dec. 4-7, 10-14

* "Whose Wives are They Anyway?" - Jan. 29-Feb. 1, Feb. 4-8

* "Death Trap" - March 19-22, 25-29

* "Plaza Suite" - May 7-10, 13-17

More information about each production is available online, at www.dakotastageltd.com. Season tickets for 2008-09 also can be purchased online.