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Show ' LI 'firm i. ..rTii .i i i iirA In nJf 'i companies, community and university theatres in many states in this country as well r as in Europe, Israel, Canada, and in Australia and New .Zealand with a Maori cast. Porgy will be played by Edward Pierson and Bruce A. Hubbard; Bess will be played by Vanessa Shaw and Barbara Purdy, all of New York City. Mr. Pierson and Mr. Hubbard both appeared at PMT in 1976, the former in SHOWBOAT and the latter in THE PATRIOTS. Westerners also remember Mr. Pierson for his superb performances in "The Messiah" Mes-siah" and "Elijah" for the Utah Oratorio Society. Other guest artists include: in-clude: Arnold McCuller as Sportin' Life, Delores Ivory as Serena, Joanne Jackson as Maria and Gregg Baker as Crown and (in alphabetical order): George Anthony Bell, P. L. Brown, Donald H. Coleman Patricia- : dehkiiis'A' Brenda E. Mitchell, Lou Ann Pickett, Jan Strickland, Ken-; Ken-; neth Stroman, Louis Tucker, Mervin B. Wallace, and New Wright. - Settings are by Sid Perkes and lighting is Peter Willard-son. Willard-son. Beth Robinson Novak is Costume Coordinator and D. Dale Dean is Production Stage Manager. Pioneer Memorial Theatre's Musical Director, James Prigmore will conduct. PORGY AND BESS will play February 19 through March 7 at Kingsbury Hall on the University of Utah Campus in Salt Lake City. It plays nightly (except Sundays) Sun-days) at 8:00 p.m. with a matinee on Saturday, February Febru-ary 28 at 2:00 p.m. Reservations may be made by calling the Pioneer Memorial Theatre box office at 581-6961. "Porgy and Bess" opens Feb. 19 at Pioneer Memorial Theatre in Salt Lake 'Porgy and Bess' Opens Tonight in SLC "We feel that this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see their great American work," said Keith Engar, Executive Producer of Pioneer Pio-neer Memorial Theatre in Salt Lake City. "The national touring company played here in 1945 but this is the first time it has ever been produced in the Inter-mountain Inter-mountain West. Because of j the enormity of it the casting, orchestra and production pro-duction problems I doubt that it will be done soon again," he continued. Pioneer Memorial Theatre's Thea-tre's production of PORGY AND BESS is indeed a large one. Because of the size of the orchestra (40 pieces) it had to be moved to Kingsbury Kings-bury Hall where there is a pit large enough to accomodate that many musicians. Because of the size and ethnic background required of the cast and the complexities complexit-ies of the music, 19 singer-actors had to be imported from New York City and Los Angeles. They have joined with townspeople towns-people from Salt Lake City and Ogden and University of Utah students to complete a cast that numbers 56 in all. Ella Gerber has come from New York City to direct her 21st production of PORGY AND BESS. She started as an actress on Broadway and began directing at an early age. She has directed PORGY AND BESS for opera |