Secret Garden. Photo courtesy Darren Whitley/Northwest Missouri State University
MARYVILLE, Mo. – The Northwest Missouri State University Department of Fine and Performing Arts continues its 2014-2015 main stage series this month with “The Secret Garden,” the touching coming-of-age story based on the classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Performances in the Studio Theatre at the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts are 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13-15, Nov. 20-22 and Dec. 4-6, and at 2 p.m. on the Sundays of Nov. 16, Nov. 23 and Dec. 7.
Tickets are $8 per person and may be purchased at the Student Services Center, located on the first floor of the Administration Building, by phone at 660.562.1212, or at the door beginning one hour before the show.
In the play, adapted from the novel by Jerry R. Montoya, Mary Lennox is orphaned and becomes the ward of an uncle in England she has never met. As she adjusts to her new life at the secluded Misselthwaite Manor, Mary discovers a secret garden. If she can uncover the mysterious circumstances behind the garden, she might be able to save her sickly young cousin and melt the heart of her emotionally distant uncle.
The Northwest production is directed by Dr. Joe Kreizinger, associate professor of theatre.
“The idea of self-fulfilling prophecy plays a major role in this show,” Kreizinger said. “If you believe you can’t be successful, you more than likely won’t be, but if you dream instead of the possibilities and potential, and have faith in yourself and others, great things can indeed happen.”
Secret Garden. Photo courtesy Darren Whitley/Northwest Missouri State University
The cast features Megan Friend, a senior speech and theater education major from Omaha, Neb., as Mary Lennox, and Jake Thomsen, a junior speech and theater education major from Elkhorn, Neb., plays Colin Craven.
The remainder of the cast consists of Fred Vogel, a junior speech and theater education major from Lincoln, Neb.; Mike Brown, a senior speech and theater education major from Independence, Mo.; Brady Reed, a freshman theater major from Springfield, Ill.; Ashley Reynolds, a sophomore theater performance major from St. Charles, Mo.; Andrea Boswell, a junior theater major from Corning, Iowa; Ben Ficenec, a freshman wildlife ecology and conservation major from Ralston, Neb.; and Shawn Murphy, a freshman theater performance major from Redfield, Iowa.
Kaylee Winer, a sophomore theater technical and design major from Belton, Mo., is the stage manager. Bethanie Swiney, a senior speech and theater education major from Fulton, Mo., is the assistant director.
“This is an experienced and talented cast who, like the characters they portray, truly care about one another,” Kreizinger said. “They are thinkers and doers, the dream of directors. Their collaboration has been unusually strong, as has been the case with the lighting, sound, scenery, and costume staffs.”