>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

TIMELESS FABLE OF LOVE: Front: Maegan Cargill as Hucklbee. In the background: EmilyButler as Luisa, Jeff VanVickle as Matt (Photo / Kenn Wheeler).

LA GRANDE - The Theatre in the Ronde amateur troupe is staging the "Fantasticks," the longest running production in the history of musical theater, this summer.

It originally opened off-Broadway in 1960 and played in the same theater until 2002.

The show is produced by The Community School of the Arts at EOU as part of its commitment to education and performance opportunities for community members of all ages.

The show, which features actors ranging in age from 15 to 42, opens opens Friday and runs through , Aug. 12, 18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Schwarz Theatre on the EOU campus. EOU Theater Professor Kenn Wheeler is directing "The Fantasticks." Assisting Wheeler with the show are Music Director Debbie Winn, and Costumer and Choreographer Denise Wheeler.

"The Fantasticks" has at the heart of its poetry and theatrical sophistication purity and simplicity that transcends cultural barriers. The result is a timeless fable of love that manages to be nostalgic and universal at the same time.

The show features two local high school stars, Jeff VanVickle and Emily Butler, who portray childhood sweethearts banned from seeing each other by a family feud. This familiar story has a strange twist when it is revealed that the feud is a sham made up by the mothers of the children in hopes of getting the kids to fall for each other because of course children always do the opposite of what parents want them to do.

This is a poignant comedy that looks at the relationships of young lovers and their families. It includes classic songs such as "Try to Remember," dance numbers and of course the obligatory fake abduction.

"The Fantasticks" was written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt.

Jones and Schmidt began their partnership at the University of Texas in 1950 with a musical revue called "Hipsy-Boo!" for which Jones was sketch writer and Schmidt was musical director. The director of the show was Word Baker who later directed "The Fantasticks."

Following their successful collaboration they wrote an original book musical and began writing songs together on a regular basis.

After graduation, they both served in the Army during the Korean War and continued collaborating by mail. After leaving the Army, the pair moved to New York where Schmidt worked as a graphic artist for NBC television and a freelance illustrator for such magazines as Life, Harper's Bazaar, Sports Illustrated and Fortune and Jones taught and tried to establish himself as a director.

Writing together, they contributed material to Julius Monk's "Upstairs-Downstairs" shows and Ben Bagley's "Shoestring Revues."

In their spare time, they worked on a full-scale musical based on Rostand's "Les Romanesques." Originally envisioned as a big Broadway show, this effort eventually became "The Fantasticks."

For Broadway, the team has written "110 In The Shade," a musical version of N. Richard Nash's tender Southwest romance, "The Rainmaker," as well as, among other shows, "I Do, I Do" adapted from Jan de Hartog's long-run comedy smash, "The Fourposter."

In the area of original musicals, they created "Celebration," and working out of Portfolio, their own theater workshop, "Philemon," a show that brought the team the Outer Critics' Circle Award in 1975. The mission of Portfolio was to concentrate on small-scale musicals in new and untried forms.

Jones and Schmidt also wrote a musical version of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," called "Grover's Corners," and "Collette Collage," a musical evening about the celebrated French author.

Tickets for the show are available at Sunflower Books, The Community School office and online at www.eou.edu/csa.

Tickets are $8, $5 for students. For more information on the show please call the Community School office at 962-3629 or visit them on the Web at .