Live at Heritage Center presents E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web
Feb 26, 2014 | Kristi Lynch
Heritage Center, the University of Dubuque’s performing arts, worship, and campus center, will present Charlotte’s Web, performed by Theatreworks USA, on Friday, March 28, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. This production is based on E.B. White’s loving story of the friendship between a pig named Wilbur and a little gray spider named Charlotte. Wilbur has a problem: how to avoid winding up in the slaughterhouse. Enter Charlotte, a fine writer and a true friend, who assures Wilbur she will save him. Charlotte hits on a plan to fool Farmer Zuckerman – she will create a “miracle”. Spinning the words “Some Pig” in her web, Charlotte weaves a solution which not only makes Wilbur a prize pig, but ensures his place on the farm forever. This treasured tale, featuring mad-cap and endearing farm animals, explores bravery, selfless love, and the true meaning of friendship.
WHAT: Live at Heritage Center Family Performance – Charlotte’s Web
WHEN: Friday, March 28, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: John and Alice Butler Hall at Heritage Center
TICKETS: $13-$15 for adults, $7 for children/students, $3 for lapseats for children 3 & under (with purchase of an adult ticket)
Charlotte’s Web began its national tour in fall 1993, and has been one of Theatreworks USA’s most popular productions ever since. The play by Joseph Robinette is based on the Newbery Medal-winning book by E.B. White (Stuart Little, Trumpet of the Swan), with an incidental music score by Jeffrey Lunden, winner of the Lortel Award, Rodgers Award, and Jonathan Larson Award. Creating the visual landscape is scenic designer James D. Sandefur, with costumes by Anne-Marie Wright. This 60-minute play is recommended for audiences age 5 and up, and is followed by an opportunity for all audience members to meet costumed characters.
Theatreworks USA has a distinguished history of not only providing young audiences with their first taste of the performing arts, but also giving young actors, writers, directors, and designers an early opportunity to work in this field. A list of Theatreworks USA alumni reads like a veritable "who's who" of theatre: four-time Tony-winning director Jerry Zaks, Robert Jess Roth (Beauty and the Beast), Michael Mayer (Thoroughly Modern Millie); writers Marta Kauffman and David Crane (TV's Friends), Lynn Ahrens and Steven Flaherty (Ragtime, Once on This Island), Jason Robert Brown (Parade), Larry O'Keefe (Bat Boy), Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx (Avenue Q); and Tony-winning actors John Lloyd Young, Roger Bart, Chuck Cooper, and John Glover. Esteemed performers F. Murray Abraham, Henry Winkler, and Judy Kuhn also got their start with Theatreworks, and other actors have gone on to originate lead roles in such Broadway shows as Avenue Q, Hairspray, Young Frankenstein, Rent, Wicked, Jersey Boys, and many others.
The touring company is America's largest and most prolific professional not-for-profit theatre for young and family audiences. Since 1961, Theatreworks USA has enlightened, entertained, and instructed over 68 million people in 49 states and Canada, now performing for about four million people annually. Every year, the company tours approximately 16 shows from its ever-growing repertoire of 110 plays and musicals. In addition, Theatreworks USA has an extensive multi-cultural guest artist roster, including storytellers, puppeteers, poets, and magicians. Under the direction of Barbara Pasternack (artistic director) and Ken Arthur (managing director), Theatreworks USA is also one of the most honored theatres of its kind. It is the only children's theatre to receive both a Drama Desk and a Lucille Lortel Award, as well as numerous other awards including a 2001 Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award.
Tickets for Charlotte’s Web can be purchased now at the Farber Box Office, Monday through Friday from 12:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Heritage Center, University of Dubuque, 2255 Bennett Street; by phone at 563-585-SHOW; or online at www.dbq.edu/heritagecenter.
