A tale of love and redemption in a bluegrass musical will be staged at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
“Bright Star,” by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, will be staged in Jenkins Theatres of the Noel Fine Arts Center, 1800 Portage St., Stevens Point. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 12 and 13, and Thursday through Saturday, April 18 through 20, with a matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 4. It is part of the “Hidden Lives” theatre and dance season.
Tickets are $27 for adults, $24 for seniors and UW-Stevens Point faculty and staff, and $16 for youth. Tickets will be available for purchase at tickets.uwsp.edu, by calling 715-346-4100 or by visiting the Information and Tickets Office in the Dreyfus University Center in Stevens Point.
Set in the 1920s and ‘40s American South, the musical follows editor Alice Murphy as she meets a young soldier just returning home from World War II. He kindles her longing for the child she once lost. Setting out on a journey after becoming haunted by their unique connection, she finds the power to alter both of their lives.
“Bright Star tells a story of second chances,” said Professor Mark Hanson, musical theatre, the show’s director. Members of the cast of 24 will bring energy to the storytelling through student-collaborated choreography from UW-Stevens Point students Arista Detter and Jordan Linton.
The production hopes to be an uplifting theatrical journey that will be not only refreshingly genuine but also daringly hopeful, he said.
“The bluegrass style of music is unusual for musical theatre,” Hanson said. “I am excited to see something relatively new to the repertoire and is something everyone can relate to in some fashion.”