Mesa Repertory Theatre: New Theatre for a New Audience

• WHAT:    MESA REPERTORY THEATRE: New Theatre for a New Audience
• WHERE:    Moss Performing Arts Center, Mesa Experimental Theatre
• WHEN:    June 12–29, 2014
• TICKETS:    Box Office 970.248.1604 / coloradomesa.edu/moss/theatretickets.html

Colorado Mesa University’s Department of Theatre Arts will present“New Theatre for a New Audience,” the third season of the Mesa Repertory Theatre. This year, MRT will produce three regional premieres: the musical Ordinary Days, the comical Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,and for young audiences, Tales of the South West.

Artistic Director Jeremy Franklin will direct Ordinary Days,a new musical by Adam Gwon, which is described by the composer as:

“When Deb loses her most precious possession—the notes to her graduate thesis—she unwittingly starts a chain of events that turns the ordinary days of four New Yorkers into something extraordinary. Told through a series of intricately connected songs and vignettes, Ordinary Days is an original musical about growing up and enjoying the view.”

Producer and Department Head Tim Pinnow will direct Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, the 2013 Tony Award Winner for Best Play by Christopher Durang, which throws a normally quiet household into an upheaval of lust, rivalry, regret, and hope.Community favorites Lee Borden, Juli Jacobson and Diane Anglim will star alongside CMU students in this contemporary comedy.

For young audiences, MRT will present Tales of the South West,written by Ruth Cantrell and directed by newly appointed full time faculty member, Megan Glynn. Written in 1997, this charming and inventive collection of stories includes such gems as “The Rabbit and the Prairie Dog,” “Leena, the Javalina,” and “How the Mesa Got its Name.”

The MRT season will open on June 12th and will run for three weekends, closing on June 29th. Specific dates and information can be found at coloradomesa.edu/theatre/mesarepertorytheatre.html. In addition, video podcasts will be released periodically until opening night and will give audiences a glimpse backstage at MRT. Videos can be found at coloradomesa.edu/theatre and on Facebook (facebook.com/MesaRepertoryTheatre)

All productions will be presented in the Moss Performing Arts Center’s Mesa Experimental Theatre.

This activity is supported by funding from the Colorado Creative Industries Division, a State Agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency.