to be showcased by

LCC Opera Workshop April 6-8

An evening of complications filled with music, dance and comedy will be presented by the Laredo Community College Opera Workshop during its spring production of the cherished Broadway theatrical musical, “Guys and Dolls,” April 6, 7 and 8.

The classic musical, written by Frank Loesser, is about gangsters and crusaders, as well as relationships and gambling. 

Regarded as the fifth longest-running musical of the 1950s, the show features an array of escapades, including a brawl in Havana, showgirl numbers, gangsters nearly caught as they run out of a mission, a roll of the dice for the souls of the players and a rousing midnight prayer meeting.

Based on Damon Runyon’s short story “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown,” “Guys and Dolls” revolves around Nathan Detroit, the organizer of the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York, who bets fellow gambler Sky Masterson that he can’t make the next girl he sees fall in love with him.

The next girl Masterson sees happens to be Sarah Brown, a pure-at-heart Salvation Army-type reformer, setting the stage for the complications, which work themselves out in a not-so-perfect but still happy ending.

The production is under the direction of Dr. Joseph Crabtree, director of the LCC Opera Workshop and chair of the LCC Music and Dance Department.

Riding high on the recent success of last season’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” the Opera Workshop is upping its performance level with this challenging musical comedy.

“The Opera Workshop chose ‘Guys and Dolls’ to raise the bar in terms of audience expectations,” Crabtree said.  “We wanted to do a combined musical and dance show, which also will feature the college’s Dance Theatre.”

The dance group is under the direction of LCC dance instructor Danuta Gazdyszyn.

Admission for the performances is $5 at the door to the Guadalupe and Lilia Martinez Fine Arts Center theater on the main campus.

Show times are at 8 p.m. on April 6 and at 7:30 p.m. on April 7 and 8.

For more information about the performances, call the LCC Music and Dance Department at 721-5330.  

Dinner on for

musical’s April 6

opening night

Aficionados of live theater and fine dining should make plans to attend opening night for the LCC Opera Workshop’s rendition of “Guys and Dolls” Thursday, April 6.

LCC will offer a special Italian dinner prior to the show in the Guadalupe and Lilia Martinez Fine Arts Center on the main campus.

The dinner will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and show will be at 8 p.m.

Tickets for the dinner and musical are $50 per person, with preferred seating for the performance.

Organizers of the benefit dinner, which will be catered by Johnny Carino’s, said that proceeds will be used to provide scholarships to fine arts majors at LCC.

“This is a unique opportunity to feast on a great dinner and enjoy a great musical performance in support of the fine arts in our community,” Millie Slaughter, community relations director, said.

Slaughter indicated that the dinner will consist of homemade lasagna, chicken marsala, eggplant parmigiana, angel hair pasta with artichokes and turtle cheesecake.

The scholarship fundraiser is hosted by the Citizens Advisory Committee with support from the LCC Education Foundation, she added.

Tickets must be purchased in advance by calling the LCC Community Relations office at 721-5812.