St. Paul, Minn. (Oct. 17, 2016) — The Macalester College Theatre and Dance Department presents “Urinetown: The Musical,” with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis, in the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, Mainstage Theater, 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul, Minn.
“Urinetown: The Musical” is a satirical musical comedy that has won three Tony Awards, three Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards and two Obie Awards. A 20-year drought leads to a government-enforced ban on private toilets. The citizens of Urinetown must use public amenities that are regulated by a company that profits by charging admission for one of the human body’s most basic needs. One man plans a revolution in this satire of the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, corporate mismanagement, and musical theatre itself, providing a fresh perspective on one of the theatre’s greatest art forms.
Director Harry Waters Jr., who created the role of ‘Belize’ in the world premiere production of Angels in America and portrayed the character ‘Marvin Berry’ in the movie Back to the Future (1985), has acted in and directed numerous productions around the country. At Macalester, Waters is the Chair of the Theatre and Dance department and is teaching “Acting Theory and Performance I” and will be teaching “Community Based Theatre” and “Acting II- Meisner True Acting” in the spring of 2017. Waters is also working on a co-production of MEDEA with the Music department in February 2017. Locally he has appeared at the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Ten Thousand Things Theater, Park Square Theatre, Pangea World Theater, and Pillsbury House Theatre.
He has directed productions of Runaways, Proof, Angels in America Part I: Millennium Approaches, The Colored Museum, Tartuffe, Cabaret, and The Laramie Project.
Cast and crew members include: Zeej Anderson ’18, Chanhassen, Minn., Anna Bruijn ’18, Ten Boer, The Netherlands, Chesare Cipriano ’20, Cottage Grove, Minn., Sebastian Coll ’19, Minneapolis, Minn., Annie Daley ’20, Takoma Park, Md., Isaac Gamoran ’19, Bethesda, Md., Becky Githinji ’18, Memphis, Tenn., Gillian Gold ’18, New York, N.Y., Carolyn Guddal ’19, St. Louis Park, Minn., Patrick Hegdahl ’17, St. Paul, Minn., Sasha Hixson ’19, New York, N.Y., Michael Karadsheh ’18, Holland, Mich., Allison Leopold ’20, St. Paul, Minn., Yucai Li ’19 Chongqing, China, Anna Mickle ’19, Madison, Wis., Noah Nieting ’17, Bloomington, Minn., Jake Parsky ’19, Bethesda, Md., Tillie Pederson ’19, Pasadena, Calif., Nadine Grantham Philips ’19, Santa Fe, N.M., Dominic Rodgers ’19, Amherst, Mass., Rafi Schneider ’19, Philadelphia, Penn., Kavya Shetty ’19 Kennett Square, Penn., Benjamin Rubenstein ’17, Eagan, Minn., and Trevor Zapiecki ’19 Grand Rapids, Ohio.
Tickets are $10 general admission, $7 seniors, groups and ACTC faculty/staff, and $5 for students with ID. Performances are 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, November 4 – 5, Thursday – Saturday, Nov. 10 – 12, and 2 p.m. Sunday, November 6. The performance on the 11th is ASL interpreted. For ticket information call 651-696-6359 or go online to macalester.edu/boxoffice.
