University News
WIU Summer Music Theatre Announces 2001 Season
February 28, 2001
MACOMB, IL -- The Western Illinois University Summer Music
Theatre has announced the lineup for its 30th season. All shows
will be presented at 7:30 p.m in the Browne Hall Hainline Theatre
on the WIU campus.
The season will open with one of the most beloved musicals
of all time, "The Sound of Music," June 22, 23, 28, 29 and 30.
The final collaboration between Rodgers and Hammerstein was
destined to become the world's most celebrated musical with six
Tony awards, including best musical, book and score. When a
postulant proves too high-spirited to the religious life, she is
dispatched to serve as governess for seven children of a widowed
naval captain. Her growing rapport with the youngsters, coupled
with her generosity of spirit, gradually captures the heart of
the stern captain and they marry. Upon returning from their
honeymoon, they discover that Austria has been invaded by the
Nazis, who demand the captain's immediate service in the German
navy. The family's narrow escape over the mountains to
Switzerland on the eve of World War II provides one of the most
thrilling and inspirational finales ever presented in the
theatre. The motion picture version remains the most popular
movie musical of all time and winner of five Academy Awards,
including best picture.
A Stephen Sondheim musical will be the second selection of
the season. "A Little Night Music" will be performed July 6, 7,
12, 13 and 14. This Tony Award-winning best musical also won best
score and best book and the Drama Critics Circle Award. Described
as "heady, civilized, sophisticated and enchanting" by the New
York Times, "A Little Night Music" waltzes into a turn-of-the-
century Sweden suffused with love. This lilting adaptation of
Bergman's "Smiles of a Summer Night" traces the myriad forms of
desire from the tender blossoming of inexperience to the startled
rekindling of long-forgotten passion.
The final selection will be "Working," a musical adapted by
Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso from the book by Studs Terkel, to
be performed July 20, 21, 26, 27 and 28. With songs by Craig
Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers, Susan Birkenhead, Stephen
Schwartz and James Taylor, "Working" is a musical about, by and
for anyone who has ever punched a clock, a cow or a supervisor.
Based on the Terkel's best-selling book of interviews with
American workers, "Working" explores the American workday from
the Monday morning blues to the second shift blahs through the
original words of some uncommon "common" men and women. Twenty-
six workers, including a parking lot attendant, corporate
executive, newsboy, schoolteacher, gasman, housewife, fireman,
waitress, millworker, sailor, etc., sing and talk about their
jobs, defining not only their daily round, but their hopes and
aspirations as well.
WIU Summer Music Theatre season tickets are $37.50 and can
be ordered through the mail. Ticket brochures will be distributed
in May. If you have never received a ticket brochure and wish to
be put on the mailing list, please contact the College of Fine
Arts and Communication at 309-298-1552 or email
Debra_Miller@ccmail.wiu.edu. Individual show tickets are also
available at $15 for the public, $12 for seniors and $8 for
children under 12. The Hainline Theatre Box Office will be open
noon to 5 p.m. weekdays after June 4.
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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