Summer Studio Theatre tickets go on sale Friday

URBANA – The Summer Studio Theatre Company will return to Krannert Center's Studio Theatre for its 18th season with three productions, each with a two-person cast.

The professional, repertory company under the direction of Tom Mitchell, interim head of the University of Illinois Department of Theatre, will present

"The Last Five Years," a musical by Jason Robert Brown; "The Turn of the Screw" by Jeffrey Hatcher, based on the classic novel by Henry James; and Lanford Wilson's romantic comedy "Talley's Folly."

Mitchell said that the small casts along with strong scripts allow audiences to focus on the quality of the individual performances and the strength of each story line. With Summer Studio, Mitchell succeeds James Berton Harris, a theater professor who retired last year after heading the summer repertory theater for seven years.

All three plays will have different casts and be performed in the round and presented in rotation from June 13 through July 26. Tickets go on sale starting at 10 a.m. Friday.

The final two weekends of the summer season will feature six performances of "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight," written by James Hurt, professor of English at the University of Illinois. The staged reading will feature the six cast members from the Summer Studio shows in addition to other regional performers. The Lincoln piece is being funded in part by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Committee.

Following are descriptions provided by Krannert Center of each play:

" "Talley's Folly." In a small 1944 central Missouri town, two misfits find romance in a deserted boathouse – Matt Friedman, an awkward Jewish accountant from St. Louis, and Sally Talley, the daughter of the most prominent family in the small town. This romantic play offers both humor and sentimentality as its two distinct characters negotiate a relationship neither of them expected to develop.

" "The Last Five Years," with James Zager as director and Kristina Engberg, musical director. This contemporary 2001 musical traces the development and deterioration of the five-year relationship between Jamie, a rising novelist, and Cathy, a struggling young actress. While Jamie tells the story of their growing romance in "forward time," or from beginning to end, Cathy reflects on the missteps of the relationship in reverse. Though Jamie and Cathy hearts divide, their stories connect at midpoint for a deeply felt celebration of what once was.

" "The Turn of the Screw," directed by Lisa Gaye Dixon. When a governess takes up her duty to care for two recently orphaned children, Flora and Miles, in a Gothic English household, she discovers the curious circumstances of her predecessor's passing. Soon, the specter of the former governess and her ghostly lover begin to torture the would-be heroine. But are the ghosts real or merely the projections of a young woman's fears? This classic ghost story, perhaps best-known from the classic film, "The Innocents," or the 2001 version, "The Others," has been reshaped into a compelling two-person performance.

" "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight." This script-in-hand reading depicts the influence of Lincoln on three poets of Illinois. The lives and careers of Vachel Lindsay, Edgar Lee Masters and Carl Sandburg are interwoven with an ensemble of players taking a variety of roles. The show was originally staged 20 years ago for "The Great American People Show," a summer theatrical company directed by John Ahart. at Lincoln's New Salem State Park near Springfield and featured a cast that included students who would go on to develop impressive professional careers. This play returns to the stage as the bicentennial year of Lincoln's birth approaches.

Tickets for "Talley's Folly," "The Last Five Years" or "The Turn of the Screw" are $18 for adults, $15 for senior citizens and students and $10 for UI students. Matinee tickets are $15, $12 and $10. Tickets for "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight" are $10, $8 and $6.

To order tickets call 333-6280 or 800-527-2849 and for deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired patrons, 333-9714. To order by fax, dial 244-SHOW.

By mail, write to Krannert Center Ticket Office, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL 61801; by e-mail, kran-tix@uiuc.edu; and in person, Krannert Center Ticket Office, open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m daily.

Information about the 2008 summer season will be available online at KrannertCenter.com starting at 10 a.m. Friday.

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