Laughs and drama take stage

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Sep 16, 2007 | by Ivan M. Lincoln Deseret Morning News

Greek drama, a Halloween comedy and two youth-oriented productions are among new stage offerings this week.

• HELEN, this year's 37th annual Classical Greek Theatre Festival production, is the fourth play in the festival's series concerning the Trojan War.

Directed by Barbara Smith and using a script translated by Kenneth McLeish from Euripides' ancient Greek drama, this one puts a different spin on the legendary "Helen of Troy" story. Here, Helen was never in Troy. Instead, she was spirited away from Sparta and a fake Helen was left in her place to be kidnapped and taken to Troy, thus touching off the 10-year war. In Euripides' blend of comedy and drama, Helen is waiting in Egypt for news of her husband as she fends off marriage to an Egyptian king.

"Helen" will have performances on four campuses:

--Saturday and Sept. 23 and Sept. 29-30, at 9 a.m. outdoors just north of the University of Utah's Performing Arts building (west of the campus book store). Tickets are $12 for general admission, $9 for U. faculty and staff and $6 for all students (581-7100 or www.kingtix.com). There will be a lecture at 8:30 a.m. by dramaturg James Svendsen prior to each performance.

--Sept. 26, 7:30 p.m., in the Austad Auditorium of Weber State University's Browning Center, Ogden. Tickets are $5.50 and $8.50. Free preshow lecture at 6:30 p.m. in the Garrison Choral Room. (The Ogden performance is being held in conjunction with a weeklong free Greek festival on campus, including lectures, readings and other related activities.)

--Sept. 29, 3 p.m., in the amphitheater at Westminster College (832-2457).

--Oct. 1, 5 p.m., in the de Jong Concert Hall of Brigham Young University's Harris Fine Arts Center. Tickets are $7-$10 (378- 4322). Free lecture at 4 p.m. in the same venue.

• HENRY BOTTER AND THE CURSE OF DRACULA, the Off Broadway Theatre's new Halloween comedy has Harry Potter's parents killed by the blood-sucking vampire instead of a dark wizard. The cast includes improv comic Logan Rogan as Botter and Eric R. Jensen as Dracula.

Playing Friday through Nov. 10, performances will be Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. at 272 S. Main. (No show Sept. 24.) Tickets are $16 for adults; $12 for students, senior citizens and military; and $8 for children (355-4628).

• ALICIA IN WONDER TIERRA, loosely mixing "Alice in Wonderland" with "The Wizard of Oz," will have three public performances in Utah State University's Morgan Theatre before it's presented to elementary-school children throughout the region.

Directed by Lanny Langston from a script by Silvia Gonzalez, it tells the adventures of young Alicia, who trips over some Mexican pottery in a curio shop and whirls off on a mystical journey to an Aztec temple to find the potterymaker.

The three public performances will be Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children (435-797-0305). The show is geared to youngsters 5 and older.

• ONCE UPON A MATTRESS, a musical farce based on "The Princess and the Pea," opens Saturday and plays through Nov. 10 in the Terrace Plaza Playhouse, 99 E. 4700 South, Ogden.

Director Susan Wilhelm's cast includes Leslie Richards as Princess Winnifred the Woebegone, Chris Gilbert as Prince Dauntless the Drab, Carolyn J. Stevens as Queen Aggravain, and Michael Winn as King Sextimus the Silent.

Performances are Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $9-$11 for adults and $6-$8 for children, with discounts for students and senior citizens (393-0070 or www.terraceplayhouse.com).

• BLITHE SPIRIT, Noel Coward's classic farce about marriage and poltergeists, will be performed Thursday through Sept. 29 in Provo's new Covey Center for the Performing Arts, 425 W. Center. (The FACE Theatre production was originally scheduled to play in the company's new space, but construction delays have pushed back the date for FACE moving into the venue.)

Directed by Eric C. Heaps, the cast includes Andrew Whittaker as Charles Condomine, Jana Nate as Ruth Condomine, Erika Erickson as Elvira, Charles' deceased former wife, and Dana Anquoe as Madama Arcati.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students, senior citizens and children (852-7007).

• CINDERELLA, staged by the Missoula Children's Theatre, will be presented at 3 and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in the Midvale Performing Arts Center, 695 W. Center (7720 South).

The production features a large cast of Midvale area youths. MCT is renowned for its unusual touring shows -- providing directors, costumes, scenery, props and makeup, with the cast made up of youths in cities on the tour, with auditions and rehearsals taking just one week.

The auditions will be Monday, 4-6 p.m., after which the cast will spend the rest of the week learning their lines and rehearsing until next Saturday's performances. A number of local "assistant directors" also are brought on board to help backstage and with the rehearsals.

Tickets at the door.

• A FINE AND PLEASANT MISERY, a one-man touring comedy featuring Tim Behrens, will play Friday and Saturday in the Covey Center for the Arts, 425 W. Center, Provo.