Two collegiate productions this week will have performances aimed at hearing-impaired audiences, with American Sign Language interpretation.
SIDEWAYS STORIES FROM THE WAYSIDE SCHOOL, a stage adaptation of Louis Sachar's popular children's book, is being presented by the Youth Theatre at the University of Utah on Friday and Saturday in Kingsbury Hall.
Guest-directed by Rachel Briley, the production features deaf, hearing-impaired and hearing actors, and will coincide with the opening weekend of the Deaflympics. The entire production will be both spoken and signed.
According to Penelope Caywood, YTU's artistic director, "Sideways Stories" is a comedy that also teaches life lessons that will appeal to both children and adults, and both hearing and deaf audiences.
The setting for the show is a wacky school accidentally built 30 stories high — with only one room on each floor. The instructors include wicked Mrs. Gorf, who turns bad kids into apples; Miss Jewls, who conducts an orchestra of imaginary instruments; and mythical Miss Zarves, whose classroom may not even exist.
Performances will be Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for youths 3 to 18 years old (581-7100 or kingtix.com).
BOCON!, written by Lisa Loomer and directed by Larry Dooley, will be staged from Friday through Feb. 10 in the Eccles Black Box Theatre of Weber State University's Browning Center, Ogden.
The one-act family-oriented fable explores freedom of speech and expression through rhythm, song, masks and movement.
Performances are Friday and Saturday and Feb. 6-10 at 7:30 p.m., with matinees on Feb. 3 and 10 at 2 p.m. The first matinee will have ASL interpretation.
Tickets are $5.50 and $8.50, available in advance at the Dee Events Center box office (800-978-8457) or at the door one hour prior to curtain.
E-mail: ivan@desnews.com