Performing arts to keep WSU stages busy

Performing arts stages will see plenty of action this year with dramatic and comic plays, opera and musical theatre features, and dance festivals.

The School of Performing Arts at Wichita State University has a quality lineup of performances scheduled for the College of Fine Arts 2012-2013 season.

It’s a diverse selection broadly packaged to please almost any fan of live stage productions in dramatic and comic theater, musicals, operas and dance.

The performances do more than entertain regional audiences, however; they provide experience-based learning for WSU students unmatched in any other Kansas university. Besides its in-depth performing arts program and well-connected professional faculty, Wichita State’s location in the largest city in Kansas offers an array of theatrical opportunities off campus, including Music Theatre of Wichita.

Plan now for these fall performances and save some dates for spring 2013. For more information or to buy tickets ahead, go to wichita.edu/fineartsboxoffice.

“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27- 29 and 2 p.m. Sept. 30, Wilner Auditorium, WSU campus. Tickets $10; $8 WSU faculty/staff, senior citizens, military; $6 students. Rated PG. Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.

Bret Jones, director of WSU theatre, will direct “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,”considered one of British playwright Tom Stoppard’s best plays. It’s an inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the point of view of two bewildered minor characters in Shakespeare’s play. The 1967 play takes an almost Laurel and Hardy approach to a clever dramatic masterpiece.

“Pirates of Penzance,” 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18-20 and 2 p.m. Oct. 21, Miller Concert Hall, Duerksen Fine Arts Center, WSU campus. Tickets $16; $14 WSU faculty/staff, senior citizens, military; $6 students. Rated G. Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.

Marie King, director of opera, will direct “Pirates of Penzance,” one of the most beloved of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. It satirizes the operatic convention that traps the hero in conflict between love and duty. Our hero Fredrick has been brought up indentured to a band of pirates, but detests the profession and upon turning 21 announces his intention to become an honest citizen. Confusion and merriment ensue as he falls for the lovely young Mabel but cannot marry her because of a technicality regarding his age.

“Fleeing Blue,” winner of WSU Original Play Competition, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7-10, and 2 p.m. Nov. 10-11, Welsbacher Theatre, WSU Metropolitan Complex, 5015 E. 29th Street N. Tickets $10; $8 WSU faculty/staff, senior citizens, military; $6 students. Rated PG13. Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.

Ed Baker, technical theatre director, will direct “Fleeing Blue,” written by Milta Ortiz, an MFA candidate at Northwestern University. The play is an exploration of the effects of war, politics and paranoia on relationships shared by a group of people who practice arts, academics and cruelty.

Kansas Dance Festival, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16-17, Miller Concert Hall, Duerksen Fine Arts Center, WSU campus. Tickets $10; $8 WSU faculty/staff, senior citizens, military; $6 students. Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.

The festival, two eclectic evenings of dance, is an annual invitational celebrating the original choreography of WSU faculty and invited faculty from neighboring universities in the region.

“She Loves Me,” 7:30 p.m. Nov. 29-30 and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 1, Wilner Auditorium, WSU campus. Tickets $16; $14 WSU faculty/staff, senior citizens, military; $6 students. Rated G. Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.

Wayne Bryan, director of Music Theatre of Wichita, will guest direct “She Loves Me,” a romantic musical by Bock and Harnick set in the 1930s. Two feuding clerks in a European parfumerie secretly find solace in their anonymous pen pals, not realizing they’re writing each other. Based on Miklos Laszio’s “Parfumerie” that inspired “The Shop Around the Corner” and more recently “You’ve Got Mail,” this endearing show with old world elegance and nostalgia remains as universal and relevant as ever in the age of Internet romance.

Children’s Dance Festival, 2 p.m. Jan. 27, Miller Concert Hall, Duerksen Fine Arts Center, WSU campus. Tickets $5, no discounts. Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.

The Children's Dance Festival has become an exciting annual event for area dancers and dance studios, bringing together young dancers from across the region to share their talents in an exciting performance.

“Suor Angelica” and “Il Campanello di note,” 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28-March 2 and 2 p.m. March 3 in Miller Concert Hall, Duerksen Fine Arts Center, WSU campus. Tickets $16; $14 WSU faculty/staff, senior citizens, military; $6 students. Rated G. Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.

Marie King will direct both operas. Puccini was inspired to write the poignant “Suor Angelica” because his sister was a nun. Angelica, a young noblewoman, has an out-of-wedlock child who is banished to a convent after placing the child with her aunt. Later the aunt wants her to sign papers turning everything to her younger sister. When Angelica asks about her son, she is told he died several years earlier. She takes poison, praying to be forgiven for suicide.

The second act will feature lighter fare with Donizetti’s “Il Campanello di note,” a masterful comedy. The short farce is in the best Italian comic tradition with a love triangle of Serafina, a young vivacious woman being married to an older pharmacist when a former young lover, Enrico, tries to intervene.

“Jake’s Women,” 7:30 p.m. March 14-16 and 2 p.m. March 17, Wilner Auditorium, WSU campus. Tickets $10; $8 WSU faculty/staff, senior citizens, military; $6 students. Rating PG. Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.

Tom Frye, instructor, will direct “Jake’s Women” as America’s comic playwright Neil Simon tackles modern relationships with his usual comic flair. Jake is a novelist writing about the women in his life. Fact and fiction blur as he daydreams about these women and his resulting marital crises.

“Faith Healer,” 7:30 p.m. April 10-13 and 2 p.m. April 13-14, Welsbacher Theatre, WSU Metropolitan Complex, 5015 E. 29th Street N. Tickets $10; $8 WSU faculty/staff, senior citizens, military; $6 students. Rated PG. Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.

Amber Creasser is the student director for this darkly lyrical tale of a traveling faith healer roaming through Scotland and Wales with his wife and his manager. The touching play by Irish Dramatist Brian Friel deals with the artist as both creator and destroyer.

WCDT Spring Dance Concert, 7:30 p.m. April 12-13, Miller Concert Hall, Duerksen Fine Arts Center, WSU campus. Tickets $10; $8 WSU faculty/staff, senior citizens, military; $6 students. Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.

WSU’s Wichita Contemporary Dance Theatre, led by director of dance Nick Johnson, will put on two nights of original choreography for dance and physical theatre.

“Crazy for You,” 7:30 p.m. May 2-4 and 2 p.m. May 5, Wilner Auditorium, WSU campus. Tickets $16; $14 WSU faculty/staff, senior citizens, military; $6 students. Rated G. Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.

Amy Baker Schwiethale will direct “Crazy for You” by George and Ira Gershwin. It’s the story of Bobby Child, a well-to-do 1930s playboy, whose dream in life is to dance. Despite the efforts of his mother and soon-to-be ex-fiancee, Bobby achieves his dream in an unexpected place. The memorable Gershwin score includes “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” “I Got Rhythm” and “Someone to Watch Over Me.” It’s a high-energy comedy that includes mistaken identity, plot twists, fabulous dance numbers and classic Gershwin music.