Ashland High School Theatre won a great honor! AHS Performing Arts will be featured at the Oregon State Thespian Festival. We submitted our fall show for adjudication and the state board chose Urinetown, the Musical, directed by Rodney Gardiner, as the closing show on Friday night, April 3, for the 2020 Thespian Festival. This will be the eighth time AHS Theatre has been chosen to perform a full-length show on the state level. If you missed it the first time, you can see it before we leave March 29 or 30 at 7:30 p.m..
The 2020 State Festival will be held April 2-4 at the Salem Conference Center and Historic Elsinore Theatre in Salem. The State Festival is the signature event for Oregon Thespians. It is attended by over 1500 theatre students and teachers from around the state and features three main stage productions, dozens of one-act plays, workshops and presentations. The day before the festival, the final state acting competition will be held and those winners will also perform their solo and duo pieces for everyone.
AHS will remount the show for 2 nights, Sunday and Monday, March 29 and 30 at 7:30 p.m. at AHS. Then we will pack the truck with set, costumes and props on Tuesday, March 31 and leave north for Salem on Wednesday, April 1. Urinetown will showcase Friday night, April 3 at 7 p.m. at Salem’s historic Elsinore Theatre. About 40 AHS students will experience the 2020 Oregon State Thespian Festival this year.
URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL (You’re in Town! Just say it!) is a satirical musical comedy that premiered on Broadway in 2001, with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis. Urinetown was nominated for 10 Tony Awards in 2002 and won three: Best Original Score; Best Book of a Musical and Best Direction of a Musical.
The musical is a hilarious tale of greed, corruption, love and revolution in a time when water is worth its weight in gold. A terrible water shortage, caused by a 20-year drought, has led to a government-enforced ban on private toilets. The citizens must use public bathrooms, regulated by one evil company that profits by charging admission for one of humanity’s most basic needs. A hero, Bobby, (played by Evan Heintz) decides he’s had enough, and plans a revolution to lead them all to freedom.
Wickedly funny and full of wit, URINETOWN will produce gales of unbridled laughter. The show parodies musical theatre itself, tipping its hat and winking at many of the iconic Broadway musicals.
The cast includes: Evan Heintz, Allie Poole, Brooklyn Williams, Henry Alexander Ella Stringer, Keagan Brooks-Torres, Madison Davis,Gwyn Murphy-Cunningham,Kaia O’Neill, Evan Lucas, Callan Skuratowicz,Ava Tobar,Ben Kerr, Mila Robertson,Eden Thompson, Lewis Eibner,Tana Tompkins and Chiara O’Gorman. The crew includes stage manager, junior, Braden Rogers who is assisted by Nick Hemmerling and Sarah Daley.
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The Artistic and Design Team include Rodney Gardiner, Director Kristen Samek, Technical Director;Ian McCarty, Musical Director and Accompanist, Laura Derocher, Vocal Director; Sarah Lozoff, Choreographer;Bart Grady, Lighting Designer; Natalie Scott, Scenic Designer;Emily Ehrlich-Inget, Costume Designer; Ronan Kilkelly, Projection Designer;Ben Cobb, Sound Consultant Betsy Bishop, Producer.
This and 7 past AHS productions that showcased at the Oregon State Thespian Festival
2020 Urinetown, the Musical directed by Rodney Gardiner
2016 Radium Girls directed by Betsy Bishop
2013 And Then They Came For Me directed by Betsy Bishop
2010 Anatomy of Grey directed by Betsy Bishop
2008 Little Shop of Horrors directed by Chris Williams
2004 Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged directed by Jackson Rowe
2001 Bang Bang You’re Dead directed by Betsy Bishop
2000 Bye, Bye Birdie directed by John Stadelman
URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL will be performed at Ashland HS Mountain Avenue Theatre located at 201 South Mountain Avenue in Ashland. The remount show runs for two nights only, Sunday and Monday , March 29 and 30 @ 7:30 p.m. “Pay What You Can as a Donation” at the door! .
Reserved seating tickets are $15. All others pay what you can! Reservedtickets are only sold online at www.showtix4u.com) or call +1 866 967 8167. Group info: 541-482-8771.