Friday, September 26, 2008

Opening and preview weekend for 7 theater productions (Sept. 26-28)

By Shawn Parikh

This weekend is bringing some great new shows to town, including college shows and previews that you can see for a low price. Make your way to the theatre while you have the time:

• Sleeping Beauty, presented by Casa Mañana's Children's Playhouse. A new, bolder, funnier retelling of your favorite tale, this Sleeping Beauty features some delightful new characters and a slightly different spin on the usual suspects. A young Princess is cursed to sleep an ageless sleep, and can only be awakened by the kiss from a Prince. You are sure to be enchanted by the staging of this magical fairy tale developed by critically acclaimed local artists Brad Jackson and Alex Vorse. Purchase tickets ($12-17) online or by calling 817-332-2272.
• My Fair Lady, presented by Rockwall Community Playhouse. This show is the standard by which all others are measured. Based on Shaw's play and Pascal's movie "Pygmalion," with book, music and lyrics by Lerner and Loewe, My Fair Lady is triumphant. With Wouldn't It Be Loverly?, With a Little Bit of Luck, The Rain in Spain, I Could Have Danced All Night, On the Street Where You Live, Get Me to the Church on Time and I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face it's no wonder everyone-not just Henry Higgins-falls in love with Eliza Doolittle. Call 972-722-3399 for reservations ($15-18).
• Lost in Yonkers, presented by Spotlight Theatre. Simon's 1991 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play about two young boys, Jay & Arty, who are forced to live for a year with their domineering, ill-tempered grandmother while their father takes a road sales job to pay off debt that was incurred by his late wife's illness. Call 972-649-6140 for reservations ($17-20).
• Stones In His Pockets, presented by Texas Wesleyan. Two actors, Junior Theatre Major Chase Burnett and Senior Theatre Major Ben Phillips, take on the daunting task of bringing 15 different characters to life, stepping in and out of these characters like so many pairs of shoes. The play, directed by Senior Theatre Major Dillon Maroney, presents many challenges for both actors and directors due to its unique presentation. Centered around a small Irish town invaded by a Hollywood movie production, hilarity ensues as small town ideals clash with Tinsel Town tenacity. As all the town’s folks have been cast as extras in the film, Hollywood fever begins to overtake some of the sleepy town’s residences; however, when tragedy strikes the set, the “real” Ireland that the movie producers worked so hard to capture become a bit too real for their tastes. Call 817-531-4211 for tickets ($4-8).
• Agnes of God, presented by Texas Wesleyan. This enticing murder mystery takes the audience through the troubled life of Agnes, played by Senior Theatre Major Whitney Park, who is a young, naïve nun suspected of possessing divine insight. When a dead infant is found in Agnes’s room, strangled by the umbilical cord, Agnes claims she doesn't know where the baby came from, or who killed it. A psychiatrist, played by Junior Theatre Major Cari Watson, is called in to determine Agnes’s sanity; however, once the doctor begins to dig into the troubled psyche of Sister Agnes, her own personal convictions towards religion compel her to become personally involved, much to the disdain of Agnes’s Mother Superior, played by Junior Theatre Major Ashley Moseley. Call 817-531-4211 for tickets ($4-8).
• The Overwhelming, presented by SMU Division of Theatre, for this week only. An American professor and his family travel to Rwanda in 1994 seeking his old college classmate, a Tutsi doctor who treats children with AIDS. Once there, as they fruitlessly search for the doctor, they become drawn into the tension and terror building to the genocidal war, facing overwhelming risks, betrayals, and life and death decisions. This suspenseful drama by award-winning playwright J.T. Rogers had its world premiere at the National Theatre of Great Britain and its American premiere in fall 2007 to critical acclaim at New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company; SMU is presenting the play’s first Dallas performance. In the Margo Jones Theatre.

And previewing this weekend is:

For Colored Girls...

• For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, presented by Jubilee Theatre. This passionately-feminist spellbinder is a fluid collection of vivid prose and free verse narratives performed by young black women. Almost exclusively concerned with the cavalier and sometimes brutal treatment accorded black women by their men, the characters capture inner feelings that infuse a unique universality. Though their performances are mainly solo, the girls are united in sorrow, spirit, pride and soul. Sometimes they sing together and dance together. Show officially opens October 3. Call 817-338-4411 for tickets ($10).

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