Casino Star Special Events at Gunnison High School
Press Release
Casino Star Theatre, 1 March 2008
Lively Hispanic dancing will fill the stage at Gunnison Valley High School this Thursday, March 6. At 7:00 p.m., the Utah Hispanic Dance Alliance, headquartered in Salt Lake City, but celebrated nationally and internationally for their performances of authentic Latin American dances, bring color and excitement to a long and dreary winter.
The program is sponsored by the Casino Star Theatre Foundation, with assistance from the Utah Arts Council Performing Arts Tour and Snow College Convocations. Tickets are on sale at the Sanpete Messenger office in Manti, at Rasmussen's Ace Hardware in Gunnison, and at the door before the performance. Suggested donations are $ 8.00 for adults and $ 5.00 for seniors and students. All proceeds go towards the effort to re-open the Casino Star Theatre by summer with a fresh new ceiling, new stage curtains, and safely breathable air.
The next event is the Casino Star Performance Season is a special performance of the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespearean Festival's touring production of Romeo and Juliet, everyone's favorite story of frustrated young love. Considered one of the "great tragedies," Romeo and Juliet is retold again and again in such forms as ballet, opera, and film, to the music of Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Leonard Berstein.
West Side Story is Romeo and Juliet in the New York City of the 1950s, with gang warfare and racial overtones. Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, the movie starring Leonardo de Caprio and Claire Danes is set in a 1990s California beach town. Weber State University presented a version with competing Mafia families during prohibition.
The warring factions have been depicted as political, racial, religious, ethnic, or economic, but the ultimate issue remains the "generation gap." Whatever may have caused the social rift, especially when it happened before their birth, is not part of the children's experience and so confuses them. On the other hand, as "everyone knows," children really should obey and honor their parents. That's the tragedy.
Romeo and Juliet is scheduled for Thursday, March 20, at 7:00 p.m. The tour stop in Gunnison is the only public performance between Pleasant Grove and Cedar City, so be sure to buy your tickets early. Again, as with all special performances, proceeds are dedicated to the restoration of the Casino Star Theatre. For this event, suggested donations are $10.00 for adults and $6.00 for seniors and students.