July 24, 2008 issue
Lees-McRae Summer Theatre Ends with Oklahoma! August 1 to 7
Story by Anna Oakes
Lees-McRae College’s Summer Theatre is winding down to a finish. The sixth and final production of the 2008 season comes in the form of one of the most endearing and influential musicals of all time—Oklahoma! The cowboys and farmhands of the American frontier take the stage Friday through Thursday, August 1 to 7, at Lees-McRae’s Hayes Auditorium in Banner Elk.
Artistic Director Janet Barton Speer said that she has saved the best for last.
“We always try to save our biggest show for August because there are more people up here,” Speer said. “Oklahoma! is a ‘chestnut’—a musical that most everyone knows and loves.”
Oklahoma! debuted in 1943 and was the first collaboration between composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, the most successful musical duo in Broadway history. Based on Lynn Riggs’ play Green Grow the Lilacs, Oklahoma! is set in the Oklahoma Territory in 1906 and tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance with farm girl Laurey Williams. Conflict arises when Jud Fry, a troubled, threatening farmhand, sets his eyes on Laurey, too.
A cast of nearly 30 actors stars Nyra Brannan as Aunt Eller, Christopher Cooke as Curly, Christine Deal as Laurey and Jim Taylor as Jud. Speer serves as director and choreographer, William Martin is music director and Ben Simpson is a choreographer and dance captain.
Oklahoma! might seem like any other musical we know today, but that’s because it established the rules of musical theatre still being followed. It was the first musical to fully integrate song and dance to advance the show’s story.
“Rodgers and Hammerstein always based their shows on famous literature,” Speer said. “They knew how to wind the literature in and out of song and dance.” That includes the first use of ballet to help develop the plot; a ballet at the end of the first act “expresses Laurey’s deepest joys and her deepest fears,” she said.
This is Speer’s fourth time directing Oklahoma! The musical was the first show she directed for the Blue Ridge Community Theatre in 1977. She also directed the show once before at Lees-McRae and again for the Community Theatre a few years ago.
“This show still rings true for me,” she said. “I love the music and the way the language flows from the characters. I love the way Jud is presented, not as a two-dimensional character, but as a tormented soul who is put in a world where he doesn’t belong. I just think the writers of this show ‘got it.’
“The team who wrote Oklahoma! took us where no one had ventured before,” she added.
About the 2008 Summer Theatre season, Speer said, “The casts have been enormously cooperative, and when you add outstanding talent to that, you end up with a great summer. Chris Carr’s ability to transform Hayes into magical sets and our other designers, Mike, Jason, Jarrett and Doug, all work diligently to keep the wheels turning—wheels that turn backstage that no one sees.”
Show times for Oklahoma! are 7:30 p.m. on August 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7 and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, August 2 and 3. Get your tickets early, because the Summer Theatre’s last show of the season is the most likely to sell out. Tickets are $24 for adults and $13 for students and children. For more information or to purchase tickets, call the box office at 828-898-8709 or click to www.lmc.edu/sites/SummerTheatre/.
Want To Go?
Date: Friday through Thursday, August 1 to 7
Time: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday/2:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Location: Lees-McRae Hayes Auditorium, Banner Elk
Cost: $24 adults/$13 students and kids
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