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Show THEATER runs gamut from laughter to suspense The gamut of emotions from laughter to suspense merged this year in a kaleidoscope of plays appearing on the Pioneer Memorial Theater main stage in 1968. Half a Sixpence, based on the H. G. Wells novel, Kipps, marked a fine beginning for the dramatic season, running from September 21-30. Under the direction of Ralph Margetts and Ardean Watts, the David Heneker and Beverly Gross musical set in Folkstone, England around 1900 captivated the hearts of the audiences. Switching roles from actor to director, Louis Tureene returned to Salt Lake to direct the Moliere play Tartuffe from February 15-24. Gene Pack in the leading role of Tartuffe, the man who comes to the Pernells family and completely takes over the household, presented the character with the full measure of flattery and deceit first created by Moliere. Presented April 25 to May 4, the 1968 Pioneer Memorial Theater commissioned play, Rendezvous, a stirring musical drama of the Rocky Mountain fur trade written by Keith Engar and scored by Crawford Gates, rounded out the season. Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, starred Louis Tureene as Mr. Antrobus and played from October 12-21. The new play represented man allegorically through the ages, showing the Antrobus family as Adam and Eve in Eden, the beginning of the Ice Age, and a raucous presentation of the Flood beginning during a stay at the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Presented in modern clothing despite the ancient settings, the play revealed subtle humor and insight, hallmarks of a Wilder play. November saw an example of epic theater in the play War and Peace based on Tolstoy's novel. Under the direction of Robert Hyde Wilson, the play, running from November 9-18, used a narrator to tie the scenes together, a new concept in theatre entered in the 1967-68 theatre season. TOP LEFT: Half a Sixpence duo raises hats and voices. BOT. LEFT: Miller's The Crucible features students in the story of Puritan witch hunting. ABOVE: Babcock features Student Award Play, a spoof of courtly love conventions. LEFT: Tartuffers in Moliere comedy. 67 |