Elizabeth Griffith News

The first emotion audiences will see in the award-winning musical "Hairspray" at the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre is unabashed joy. Lovable plus size teen Tracy Turnblad begins the show with an enthusiastic love song to Baltimore as she dances and sings while wearing the signature mile-high bouffant hairdo sported by teen girls everywhere in 1962 America.

When the Broadway stage introduced an exuberant rendition of the song "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" during the opening moments of "Oklahoma!," audiences saw a new form of musical theater unfolding. As the first musical to fully integrate songs and dances into a well-made story, it forever changed the structure of musical theater.

Local actors, directors and playwrights Chase Ramsey and David Smith knew they wanted to create a musical work for young people based on 'Alice in Wonderland.' After all, who isn't delighted by the motley crew of charming characters that inhabit Alice's world?

The Theater at Monmouth's new production of Pierre de Beaumarchais' delightful, provocative 18th century comedy, The Barber of Seville, (in translation by Elizabeth Griffith) sparkles not only with saucy wit, but also with a striking modernity. The first play from the French master's Figaro trilogy is a comedy of manners about marriage with the underlying theme - embodied in the wily Figaro - of class conflict. And though the historical context is Enlightenment France, Rosine's quest for self-determination and love and Figaro's cheerfully impudent challenging of a hierarchical society ring with relevance.

On Friday, July 8 and Friday, July 22 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. before the Opening Night performances of Love's Labour's Lost and Henry V, Theater at Monmouth will launch a new humanities-based initiative, Classics in Context. Classics in Context will offer audiences a guide to the season through the critical, historical, artistic, and cultural perspectives wound into the words of each individual play. Classics in Context is made possible by the generous support of the Maine Arts Commission and Maine Humanities Council.

It's summer and a great time to be footloose and fancy-free. Well, the audience must supply its own version of fancy free, but the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre can provide the footloose factor when one of the most explosive movie musicals of all time - "Footloose" - takes to the live stage July 1-16.

It's summer and a great time to be footloose and fancy-free. Well, the audience must supply its own version of fancy free, but the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre can provide the footloose factor when one of the most explosive movie musicals of all time - "Footloose" - takes to the live stage July 1-16.

When SCERA Center for the Arts presents 'Saturday's Warrior' as the final show of its indoor season, it will play homage to a musical that became a cultural phenomenon and changed the face of Mormon theatrical works more than 40 years ago.

Captivated by the music and compelled by the story, director Kathryn Little is delighted to take on the spellbinding musical drama 'The Secret Garden' as the culminating stage production for SCERA's national award-winning high school company, Acting Up.

For the third consecutive holiday season, SCERA is partnering with Liken to present 'The First Christmas,' the story of the nativity where a modern day family is wrapped around the Biblical tale of the birth of the Savior.

For the third consecutive holiday season, SCERA is partnering with Liken to present 'The First Christmas,' the story of the nativity where a modern day family is wrapped around the Biblical tale of the birth of the Savior.

Glimmerglass Festival presents An American Tragedy, July 20 - August 24, 2014. Check out a first look below!

Jeremy Showgren might be a popular SCERA director and music director today, but his ties to SCERA and "Les Mis" go back 17 years ago when SCERA got permission to perform the concert version of the epic drama - it was Showgren's very first SCERA show and he played keyboard in the pit orchestra.

The Tony Award-winning musical comedy 'The Drowsy Chaperone,' is anything but drowsy with its energetic cast, charming script, lively music and a clever play-within-a-play approach that has been described as 'a love letter to musical theatre.' This nostalgic spoof of a 1920's song and dance extravaganza will play tonight, April 18 to May 10 at 7:30 p.m. on Mondays, Thursdays, Todays and Saturdays at the SCERA Center for the Arts, 745 South State, Orem. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

The Tony Award-winning musical comedy 'The Drowsy Chaperone,' is anything but drowsy with its energetic cast, charming script, lively music and a clever play-within-a-play approach that has been described as 'a love letter to musical theatre.' This nostalgic spoof of a 1920's song and dance extravaganza will play April 18 to May 10 at 7:30 p.m. on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at the SCERA Center for the Arts, 745 South State, Orem. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

After a sold-out world stage premiere last year, SCERA is partnering again with Liken to produce the heartwarming holiday musical 'The First Christmas,' based on the popular Liken movie of the same name.

After a sold-out world stage premiere last year, SCERA is partnering again with Liken to produce the heartwarming holiday musical 'The First Christmas,' based on the popular Liken movie of the same name.