Houghton, N.Y.—This Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (Nov. 14–16), Houghton College’s Lyric Theatre will present their fall 2019 production, An Evening of Three Pieces. The show features a trio of lively musical theatre selections: Gary Belshaw’s The Worst One Ever, Douglas Moore’s Gallantry, and Adam Gwon’s Ordinary Days. Amanda Cox, professor of voice at Houghton College, is directing the production.
The Worst One Ever is a 10-minute comic operetta set in a college dorm room. According to Cox, the story features three college students lamenting their respective “worst ones”—a father, a boyfriend, and a professor. “They support and encourage one another through the highs and lows,” says Cox, “and eventually receive new information that may very well change their tune!”
Gallantry is a comedic one-act which takes place within the world of a campy, sensational medical drama. Cox offers a tantalizing summary: “Dr. Gregg is after Nurse Lola, but she is already engaged! But wait, her fiancé is at risk! Whom can we trust? There are scalpels! And there are even advertisements in between scenes for soap and floor wax.” The resulting romp is a hilarious combination of opera and soap opera.
The final piece, Ordinary Days, is a contemporary musical set in New York City. The story blends together pathos and comedy, as it follows the relationships of the four key characters. Houghton sophomore Collin Zehr plays the tenor part of Warren, an optimistic young man who spends his days handing out motivational flyers on the streets of New York, despite being continually rebuffed by the people he encounters. “All [Warren] wants is to spread a little joy into the world,” says Zehr, adding that Ordinary Days “is a beautiful and simple story that will leave you wanting to value all the ordinary things in life a little bit more.”
Tickets for An Evening of Three Pieces can be purchased online at houghton.edu, or at the door. They can also be purchased at the Houghton College Campus Center during lunch and dinner hours. Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for senior citizens, and $5 for college students and children under eighteen. Shows are scheduled for Thursday and Friday at 7pm, with additional shows at 2pm and 7pm on Saturday. All performances will take place in the Center for the Arts Recital Hall on Houghton’s campus.
An Evening of Three Pieces is Cox’s sixth show as the director of Lyric Theatre. “I absolutely cannot wait to share our show with an audience this semester,” she says. “I know that our audiences will laugh, cry, and be moved and changed by what we have to share. Please come out and join us!”
