Drood (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) Musical Based on Dicken's classic tale
Sunday, July 25, Thursday, July 22, Friday, July 23, Saturday, July 24
Thursday-Saturday @ 7:30pm Sunday @ 2:00pm

Summer Youth Conservatory

Summer Youth Conservatory performs Dickens ‘whodunit’

A cast of 35 young actors, ages 10 to 18, will perform the Tony Award-winning musical “Drood: The Mystery of Edwin Drood” July 22-25 in the Center for Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

For the fourth year in a row, The ArtsCenter joins with PlayMakers Reportory Company, the professional theater in residence at UNC, to present a stage production as the culmination of their Summer Youth Conservatory. The conservatory will provide five weeks of theater training beginning June 21.

“Drood” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. July 22-24 and 2 p.m. July 25 in the Paul Green Theatre inside the Center for Dramatic Art and home of PlayMakers, located on Country Club Road. Tickets are $15 for adults, $13 for PlayMakers subscribers and Friends of The ArtsCenter and $10 for children under 18.

Tickets may be purchased by phone at (919) 962-PLAY (7529), online at www.playmakersrep.org or at the Paul Green Theatre Box Office. The box office is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and two hours before each performance.

The Summer Youth Conservatory was honored by the North Carolina Theatre Conference (NCTC) with the 2009 Constance Welsh Youth Theatre Award for excellence in performance, service of mission and community outreach. The conference recognized the conservatory as having, “in just three short years … become a model program for youth theatre in North Carolina.”

Created by singer-songwriter-composer Rupert Holmes, “Drood” is based on the last, unfinished novel by master storyteller Charles Dickens. The tale is told with the lighthearted energy of British music hall shows and pantomimes, making it fun for the whole family. “Drood” was the first Broadway musical to introduce multiple endings.

The musical is a play-within-a-play, with a loony Victorian musical troupe staging a flamboyant rendition of the Dickens mystery. The story follows John Jasper, a Jekyll-and-Hyde choirmaster who is madly in love with his student, Miss Rosa Bud. Miss Bud is, in turn, engaged to Jasper’s nephew, young Edwin Drood, who disappears mysteriously one stormy Christmas Eve.

Has he been murdered? And if so, then “whodunit?” Giddy playfulness, song, dance and laughter ensue, with the audience choosing which hilarious finale will end the evening.
 
The conservatory is an educational and performance opportunity for young people that includes working with professional directors, choreographers and musical directors at PlayMakers.

Price: $15 Adults, $10 Students
ArtsClub Price: $13