A season of works filled with adventure, romance, music and comedy will be presented by the Theatre and Media Arts Department at Brigham Young University for the 2003-2004 academic year.
Season ticket information for the series is available at the Fine Arts Ticket Office, (801) 378-4322 or at www.byu.edu/hfac. Most performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. nightly, excluding Sundays and Mondays.
The Pardoe Series will begin Oct. 1 with "Misalliance," George Bernard Shaw's play brimming with satire, irresistible wit and high adventure.
During 1910, the life of a British underwear tycoon is unexpectedly complicated when an airplane crashes in his back yard. Meet his flirtatiously daring daughter Hypatia, her exasperating fiance Bentley, the paradigm-of-manhood Percival and his flying partner Linda and enjoy their delightful romp through romance, biplanes and blackmail.
Directed by Barta Lee Heiner, "Misalliance" will run through Oct. 18.
In William Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale," Leontes refuses to heed the grave warning, "Be certain what you do, sir, lest your 'justice' prove violence," as he viciously accuses his wife Hermione and best friend King Polixenes of adultery. Leonte's actions embroil innocent loved ones and the entire kingdom in a sweeping drama that spans 16 years in a new world of spirits and wonder.
Reaffirming that storms of jealousy and mistrust are best weathered by faith and grace, "The Winter's Tale" directed by Laurie Harrop-Purser will be performed Nov. 12-22 and Dec. 2-6.
You'll have reason to celebrate the heyday of rock 'n' roll when you are at "Smokey Joe's Cafe," where the American pop that defined an era is transposed into exciting musical theatre. When you hear favorites from the '40s like "Hound Dog," "Love Potion No. 9," "Jailhouse Rock," "Stand by Me" and "Yakety Yak," you won't be just strollin' down memory lane, you'll be dancing in the aisles.
"Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Lieber and Stroller" will be performed Jan. 21 through Feb. 7 and will be directed and choreographed by Pat Debenham with music direction by Randy Boothe.
"The Beggar's Opera," written by John Gay and adapted, directed and choreographed by Megan Sanborn Jones, is an exciting modern retelling of the most popular play of the eighteenth century. The classic battle between Polly Peachum and Lucy Lockett for the affection of Mac "The Knife" is fought on the stage of a music awards show.
The line separating the underworld of beggars and thieves and the MTV world of rock stars will be crossed in a brilliant pastiche of dark intrigues, star-studded romances, high-fashion statements and electrifying performances that will rock both your senses and your sense of complacency about the music you listen to everyday.
"The Beggar's Opera" will be performed March 24 through April 10.
When Tom Fitzgerald, an Irish-Catholic newspaperman, marries Tina, the daughter of a Mormon bishop, they wonder how their young family can thrive in a polarized community.
Set against the backdrop of a small Mormon settlement in nineteenth-century Utah, the Utah premiere of "Papa Married a Mormon" by John D. Fitzgerald and adapted and directed by Rodger Sorenson will be presented May 26 through June 12 in a reader's theatre production that highlights this best-selling novel's warm and inviting family story.
The Margetts Theatre Series begins Nov. 5 with "Smart Single Guys," an original play written by BYU student Tony Gunn and directed by Eric Samuelsen.
They're straight-A students. They're bright and talented. They're good looking. They're nice. They're RMs. And they don't have a clue about women. This original work is a clever satire that examines the complicated world of BYU romance. "Smart Single Guys" runs through Nov. 22.
"Flight" by Oscar Saul and Lewis Lantz and directed by Amy Jensen and Dean Duncan is a soaring adventure through time as the stories of Daedalus and Icarus, Leonardo da Vinci, the Wright brothers, Charles Lindberg and others unfold in a multimedia "living newspaper" setting.
Produced in the centennial year of the first flight at Kitty Hawk, these vignettes of technological advancement will be a fascinating experience for children and adults alike. "Flight" will play in the Nelke Theatre Feb. 11 through 21.
What would four children expect to find when exploring a wardrobe in a country estate when they are guests? Certainly not the snow-covered forest that Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy discover in the strange land of Narnia.
There they meet a host of characters: Mr. Tumnus, the Beavers and the evil White Witch who holds this enchanted place in her power. Best of all they meet Aslan, the Lord of the Wood, who assures the children and reminds the audience that, "Once a King and Queen in Narnia, always a King and Queen in Narnia."
"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" written by C.S. Lewis, adapted by Glynn Wickham and directed by George Nelson will be performed March 10 though 27.
Winning three Tony Awards for its Broadway run, "Copenhagen" by Michael Frayn is a compelling story of a dream-world unfettered by the rules that govern time and space.
The play visits and re-visits a crucial but undocumented 1941 meeting in Copenhagen between WWII's foremost atomic scientists on each side of the conflict. The German Heisenberg meets the Dutch Bohn and his wife to look for answers and to discover--just as they had discovered the internal functioning of the atom--how they can ever know what to do and why. Directed by Bob Nelson, "Copenhagen" will play May 12 through 29.
Writer: Elizabeth B. Jensen
