Summer Theatre is Back at Western!

The Western Washington University Department of Theatre and Dance is bringing live summer theatre back to campus July 29 through Aug. 30.; offerings include a range of popular musicals and plays, free Commedia performances on Old Main Lawn, and a family-friendly contemporary dance.

Evening performances are at 7:30 p.m. and matinees are at 2 p.m. A complete list of times and dates are available online at http://www.tickets.wwu.edu/.

Dance faculty Nolan Dennett directs Western student dancers in “Movement Graffiti” which performs in the Viking Union Multipurpose Room July 29 through Aug. 2. The work is impressionistic – inspired by a range of personal and poetic subjects, and set to music from Arvo Part, Kronos String Quartet, Bobby McFerrin, and Carl Orff, among others. Tickets are $6 for students and youth, and $10 for general public.

Rich Brown brings his Commedia troop to Old Main Lawn Aug. 5-9. Commedia is a highly physicalized, masked comic performance originating from the Italian Renaissance. The show features well-known stock characters such as tricky servants, young lovers, and foolish old men. The performances are free and appropriate for all ages.

The award-winning Broadway musical “Urinetown” plays on the Performing Arts Center Mainstage Aug. 12-16. Urinetown is a musical satire set in a Gotham-like city where 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 amenities, regulated by a single malevolent company. Urinetown won three Tony™ Awards, three Outer Critic's Circle Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, and two Obie Awards. Tickets are $14-19, with discounts available for youth and students.

Called “the most frighteningly realistic depiction of a family summer road trip,” “Leaving Iowa” is a comedy centering on Don Browning, a middle-aged writer who returns home to take his father’s ashes to his childhood home only to discover Grandma’s house is now a grocery store. Leaving Iowa was nominated “Best New Play in the Country” by the Detroit Free Press and one of SoCal Theater’s “10 Most Memorable Moments” of the year after its run at the Laguna Playhouse. It opens in the DUG Theatre in the Performing Arts Center on Aug. 19 and runs through Aug. 23. Tickets are $11 for students and youth, $15 for adults.

The 2015 summer theatre season closes with kid-friendly “Schoolhouse Rock Live!” based on the Emmy Award-winning 1970's Saturday morning cartoon series that taught history, grammar, math, and more through catchy songs and engaging characters like  “Zero My Hero.” Schoolhouse Rock Live! plays in the Old Main Theater August 26-30, with matinees on both Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $11 for students and youth, $15 for adults.

Western Summer Theatre is sponsored by KAFE 104.1 FM. For more information about Western Summer Theatre, visit cfpa.wwu.edu/theatredance. Tickets and disability accommodation information are available at the Western Ticket Office, (360) 650-6146. Summer Ticket Office hours are Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and before show times.