Office of Public Relations
Missouri Baptist University
One College Park Drive
Saint Louis, Missouri 63141-8698
314.392.2307 / fax 314.392.2265
www.mobap.edu / pr@mobap.edu
For Immediate Release
RE: MBU Theatre readies expanded 2007-2008 season
MBU Theatre readies expanded 2007-2008 season
February 9, 2007
Upcoming line-up includes Oklahoma! and Romeo and Juliet
An unforgettable Shakespearean tale, a look into a western, turn-of-the-century romance and a knee-slapping show based on a 1970s Saturday morning cartoon series are among the productions set to debut on the MBU stage beginning this September.
“The 2007-2008 season is going to be the most exciting and challenging compilation of shows that MBU theatre has ever produced,” said Joy Powell, drama director and instructor of theatre arts. “This famed score of productions are as diverse as they are classic. To bring them to the MBU stage in the same season is quite a testament to the quality and future of our program.”
When the curtain opens for the 2007-2008 season of MBU Theatre next fall, audiences will be in store for more shows than ever before and an expanded number of performances for each production compared to year’s past, Powell said.
Specifically, a contemporary musical theatre review has been added to the MBU Theatre schedule and the number of total theatre performances during the season is set to nearly double. This year, MBU produced eleven performances—many of which were sold out or at near capacity. Next year, the four-show season is set to run twenty-one performances.
Following is the line-up for the 2007-2008 season:
Songs for a New World by Jason Robert Brown
When: September 13-16, 2007
Where: The Recital Hall of MBU’s Pillsbury Chapel and Dale Williams Fine Arts Center
This edgy and contemporary musical theatre review chronicles many different characters as they brave new worlds such as love, birth, death and forgiveness. With a small, passionate cast and a driving, exquisitely crafted score, Songs For a New World is about one moment---or rather, isolated moments in the lives of many characters---in a variety of eras.
Brown transports his audience from the deck of a 1492 Spanish sailing ship to a ledge 57 stories above Fifth Avenue to meet a startling array of characters. They range from a young man who has determined that basketball is his ticket out of the ghetto to a woman whose dream of marrying rich nabs her the man of her dreams and a soulless marriage. These are the stories and characters of today, the songs for a new world.
OKLAHOMA! by Rodgers & Hammerstein
When: November 8-11, 15-18, 2007
Where: The Pillsbury Chapel and Dale Williams Fine Arts Center
Join us for one of the most beloved musicals of all time: OKLAHOMA! This production tells of the fun, love and romance in the lives of the families living in the Oklahoma territory at the turn of the century. OKLAHOMA! won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1944 and is considered by many to be the first musical comedy to have a plot, musical score and dances. OKLAHOMA! was also the first musical to have its entire score recorded, thus creating the original cast album. The show was the first collaboration between Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II and was the first show choreographed by Agnes de Mille. Songs include “O What a Beautiful Mornin’”, “People Will Say We’re in Love,” “Surrey with a Fringe on Top” and the title song.
School House Rock Live! Book by: George Keating, Kyle Hall and Scott Ferguson
Lyrics by: Bob Dorough, Dave Frishberg, George Newall, Kathy Mandry, Lynn Ahrens and Tom Yohe
When: January 18-20, 2008
Where: The Recital Hall of The Pillsbury Chapel and Dale Williams Fine Arts Center
MBU’s third student directed production will again give life to a pop culture phenomenon. The Emmy Award-winning 1970s Saturday morning cartoon series that taught history, grammar, math, science and politics through clever, tuneful songs is instructing a whole new generation to “Unpack Your Adjectives” and “Do The Circulations.”
In this feel good musical, Tom, a nerve-wracked school teacher who is anxious about his first day of teaching, tries to relax by watching TV when various characters representing facets of his personality emerge from the set and show him how to win his students over with imagination and music, through such beloved Schoolhouse Rock songs as “Just A Bill,” “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly” and “Conjunction Junction.”
In addition to the normal performance schedule this one act musical will offer three matinees for kids of all ages to attend.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
When: April 3-6, 2008
Where: The Pillsbury Chapel and Dale Williams Fine Arts Center
The Montagues and the Capulets families have been feuding with each other for years. Young Romeo Montague goes out with his friends to make trouble at a party the Capulets are hosting, but while there he spies the Capulet's daughter Juliet and falls hopelessly in love with her. She returns his affections, but they both know that their families will never allow them to follow their hearts. Join us for Shakespeare's classic tale of romance and tragedy.
For more information about the 2007-2008 MBU Theatre season, contact the MBU Box Office at (314) 392-2345 or go to www.mobap.edu/events.
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Missouri Baptist University is a premier Christian university in Saint Louis, offering graduate and undergraduate studies in over thirty specialized fields and nine degrees. MBU's education and fine arts programs are nationally known in addition to business, religion, administration of justice, and more. MBU is one of the fastest growing higher education institutions in Missouri with an enrollment of over 4,500 students at five locations in the bi-state region — West County, Lincoln County, Jefferson County, Franklin County and the new Illinois extension at Lewis and Clark Community College.
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