COD Theater to present 'Pippen'

"Pippen," the tale of a young man and his search for passion and significance, will take center stage next month at the College of DuPage.

Performances begin at 7 p.m. Thursdays to Sundays, July 6-16, in the McAninch Arts Center's Playhouse Theatre on the Glen Ellyn campus, 425 Fawell Blvd. A matinee performance will be presented at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 16. There will be no show Friday, July 14.

A production of Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson, "Pippin" originally was conceived as a student musical when Schwartz was in college. The Tony Award-winning musical thrust actor Ben Vereen into the spotlight when it was first staged in the early 1970s.

Over the decades, the musical has been presented in a variety of ways - medieval players, anime/hip-hop, circus performers and commedia dell arte, for example.

Connie Canaday Howard, director and theater department chairman, said the overall themes of the production are widely applicable.

"Our production is set in the early 1950s in a small, Midwestern town," she said. "A young man is cleaning an open field in preparation of the arriving carnival. Soon he is caught up in the world of the carnival and ultimately must decide how he wants to pursue his life - in a kind of celebrity, or in the passion of true connections."

Tickets are $16 for adults and $14 for students and seniors.

For details, call the MAC box office at (630) 942-4000 or visit atthemac.org.