Brigham Young University's Young Company and Theatre for Young Audiences presents a stage version "Holes" by Louis Sachar Wednesday, May 25, through Saturday, June 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the Pardoe Theatre, Harris Fine Arts Center.
Tickets are $9 with $3 off for a BYU or student ID. Half-price preview performances are May 25-26, and matinee performances will be June 2, 4 and 9 at 2 p.m. For tickets, call the Fine Arts Ticket Office at (801) 422-4322 or visit cfac.byu.edu/pe. There will be no performances Sundays or Mondays.
A "meet-the-company" session where audience members may interact with the cast members will be held following the Thursday performances, and a university roundtable, featuring scholars from a variety of fields who will critically discuss the production, will follow the Saturday, June 4, matinee.
In addition, a free family lunch-and-learn program with the director, cast and crew will be available at noon prior to the June 2, 4 and 9 matinees featuring a variety of hands-on workshops connected with the show. Families should bring their own lunches.
A Newberry Award-winning book and successful motion picture, "Holes" tells the story of Stanley Yelnats, who considers himself cursed because of his "no-good, dirty rotten, pig-stealing great grandfather."
This curse rears its ugly head when Stanley is mistakenly accused of theft and sentenced to Camp Green Lake where boys are sent to "develop character." As Stanley develops his character by digging holes, he heals both the past and present.
According to director Megan Sanborn Jones, Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Suzan Lori Parks has an early work called "The America Play."
"It's about a digger who is searching through the past of American history in order to find his place in it. Each time he digs a hole, he remarks 'he dug the hole, and the whole held him,'" she said.
"The first time I read 'Holes' by Sachar, I thought that the same statement could apply to Stanley Yelnats," said Jones. "He may be digging literal holes in the dry lake bed of Camp Green Lake, but he is also digging into his past to try and fill the holes in memory, time and family history."
"All of our lives are full of holes," said Jones. "Fortunately, most of our holes aren't five feet wide and five feet deep filled with yellow-spotted lizards."
Members of the cast include Ryan Dahlquist, Kent Nixon, Matthew Carlin, Samuel Mangum, Kim Hansen, Chris Atkin, Ty Turley, Jakob Tice, Arisael Rivera Rios, Jorge Chauca, James Jones, Burns Johansson, Joseph Shim, Keldon Shepherd, Wendy Asay, Dustin Siler, Emily Burnworth, Katie Rockwood, Marianne Smith, Eugene A. Fulton and Brynn Knibbe.
Members of the production staff include director Megan Sanborn-Jones, composer Elizabeth Funk, dramaturg Elizabeth Moss, stage manager Ellinor Bergqvist, scenic designer John Titensor, puppet master Susan Jaussi, costume designer Bethani Jensen, makeup and hair designer Emily Canady, lighting designer Monika Myers and sound designer Sam Schwendiman.
In conjunction with this performance the Provo City Library's new program, "ProvoReads," has selected the book "Holes" by Louis Sachar as its book of the month for June.
Writer: James McCoy
