Late April Live Performances on the California Central Coast

As we come to the end of April, I trust you will want to include taking in at least a couple of shows at one or more of the live performance and theatre venues that make their home here on the ever lovely Central Coast of California!

Arroyo Grande High School Theatre Company will present Steel Magnolias (https://www.facebook.com/events/436937339654498/) April 26-28 at the Clark Center in Arroyo Grande.

The action is set in Truvy's beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are "anybody" come to have their hair done.  Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town's rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, ("I'm not crazy, I've just been in a bad mood for forty years"); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M'Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a "good ole boy."  Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when, in the second act, the spunky Shelby(who is a diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life.  The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on the underlying strength - and love, which give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad. 

Directed by Shelby Green, the cast includes Winter Orozco as Truvy, Kaitlyn Groh as Annelle, Kim Williams as M'Lynn, Sarah Ormonde as Shelby, Alice Krause as Ouiser, and Elizabeth Bigler as Clairee.

Mission Prep High School will present George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, a story about the transformation of the cockney speaking Covent Garden girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a woman poised and well-spoken as a duchess, through April 29 at the Mission College Prep Performing Arts Center in downtown San Luis Obispo.  For additional information please contact (805) 543-2131.

Next up for Kelrik Productions (www.kelrikproductions.com) in their Family Series is Willy Wonka, May 12 - June 3.  Sweeney Todd will be presented May 18 - June 2 as part of their After Dark Series.  And be sure to check out their Acting ABC's (ages 4 1/2 - 2nd grade), Musical Theater (grades 3-9), and Improv (grades 3-9) classes starting April 25 & 26!

SLO Little Theatre’s (www.slolittletheatre.org) current mainstage production Dinner With Friends runs through May 6 [NOTE - caught the Friday, April 27 performance, and this is a WONDERFUL production WELL worth your time & money ... but leave the kids at home for this one!], followed by The House of Blue Leaves May 25 - June 17.  Ubu's Other Shoe readers' theatre series will hold auditions for Arcadia by Tom Stoppard on May 7 (performances June 22 & 23), and present BOOM! May 11 & 12.  And be sure to check out the Academy of Creative Theatre’s (http://www.slolittletheatre.org/pages/classes) children & youth theatre opportunities for this spring and summer!

The God Is Still Speaking Players (https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/92718528887), in collaboration with Bent Angel Productions, recently completed a readers’ theatre production of Our Town.  Next up is a summer musical production of Snoopy – auditions July 16 & 17, performances August 31 - September 9.

The Cuesta College Performing Arts Center (http://academic.cuesta.edu/performingarts/) will present their Spring Drama Production, Three Musketeers, through May 6.

Espressivo! Chamber Theatre (http://espressivotheatre.com/) will present The Botanical Engineers May 12 – June 10 at various locations on the Central Coast – stay tuned for locations & times.

Curt Miner received his degree in theatre from Northern Arizona University and has been involved in theatre, educationally and professionally, for nearly 40 years now. He is currently Pastor of the United Church of Christ in San Luis Obispo, CA (www.sloucc.org), where he founded a theatre outreach ministry known as The God Is Still Speaking Players (check them out on Facebook). Their first production was the West Coast Premiere of a new play by Gordon Greene (one of Curt's former theatre professors from back at NAU) entitled "The Scopes Monkey Trial: What Really Happened" in October of 2008. Curt and his wife of 35 years, Linda, worked together as Director and Music Director on a production of "Godspell" June 2009. The group presented a readers' theatre production of Archibald MacLeish's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play "J.B." November 2009, participated in a collaborative effort with Bent Angel Productions in a staged reading of "12 Angry Men" in February 2010, presented "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" the first 2 weekends of September 2010, embarked upon another collaborative effort with Bent Angel Productions of a staged reading of Dylan Thomas' "Under Milk Wood" in November 2010, presented a readers' theatre production of "The Diary of Anne Frank" the first weekend this past March, mounted a production of "Sister Amnesia's Country Western Nunsense Jamboree" the first 2 weekends of September, and presented "Celebration In Song" - a musical variety show to benefit the work of GALA and PFLAG in November. A readers' theatre presentation (possibly "Our Town") or another musical revue will be presented this coming March, with "Snoopy" (sequel to YAGMCB) on the schedule for the first 2 weekends in September. When people ask him "Why a theatre outreach ministry?" Curt tells them "I have found that theatre is sometimes able to touch a person's heart and soul more deeply than the best crafted worship experience ... that's why."

More Articles by This Author...