Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Presents Two Productions 7/16-19 At SaGaJi

The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center's Youth Repertory Theatre program, featuring 44 local aspiring theatre arts students aged 14-18, will mount two productions at the SaG?Ji Theatre July 16-19, as the culmination of an intensive five-week program.

Youth Repertory Theatre, in its 10th year at the Fine Arts Center, provides training for performance and technical/design students, ages 14 to 18, who are interested in a career in the theatre arts. Classes are taught by professional actors, directors, choreographers, designers, and technicians. The program culminates with two full-scale productions performed in repertory.

Last year's production of the musical, Working, was recognized by The Gazette in its ‘Best of 2008' edition.

For the honor, Best Youth Show, The Gazette wrote, "Recognized for its intensive training program in the dramatic arts, The Youth Rep showed with this ode to American workers that it could produce work as polished and mature as any professional theater company."

This year's productions are Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical, Cats, and an updated, modern version of William Shakespeare's classic comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. Tickets are $15 for FAC members and $17 for non-members.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's whimsical retelling of T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats will bring you joy and laughter, while touching your heart. Filled with great music (musical direction by Cynthia Lee Fox) and choreography (by Jan Johnson), this record-running show captures the spirit of Cats that thousands of audiences have found and loved.

Cats is directed by Susan Dawn Carson, the Youth Repertory Program Director. She directed the FAC Theatre Company's 2007 production of A Christmas Carol, TheatreWorks' 2009 production of Urinetown and earned the 2008 Pikes Peak Arts Council Award for Best Director for her work on the Star Bar Players' production of Rabbit Hole.

Carson is a "Broadway Expatriate" having starred as Fantine in Les Miserables and Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, and has numerous local acting credits including FAC productions of Anything Goes, Into the Woods and The Full Monty.

If woods, fairies, and moonlight are your preferred whimsy, don't miss the Youth Repertory Theatre's production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. This updated version of one of the most popular classics of all time will have you roaring with laughter at numerous plot twists and love story themes. Shakespeare's comedic prowess is at its peak in Midsummer at the FAC.

This production is directed by Jodi Papproth, who has been teaching theatre since 1994. She received a Bachelor's Degree of Fine Arts for Theatre Education from Drake University in Des Moines and a Master's Degree in directing from Roosevelt (Ill.) University. She has led the Cheyenne Mountain High School theatre department for 13 years. In 2005, she was named Colorado Theatre Educator of the Year.

$15 FAC members; $17 non-members; for more information concerning tickets sales, visit csfineartscenter.org or call 719.634.5583.