Theater to put on 'Once Upon a Mattress'

Thirty-five youth and young adults from throughout the Fox River Valley will present the Broadway musical classic, "Once Upon a Mattress," starting this weekend at Elgin Community College's Blizzard Theatre.

The show is an adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale, "The Princess and the Pea." That tale is a story of a queen who is seeking a wife for her son. Her screening process includes putting a pea under 20 mattresses of the guest-room bed slept on by the prospective brides because the queen knows a true princess could never sleep with such discomfort. "Once Upon a Mattress" takes the original story and adds many hilarious twists and turns.

Fox Valley Theatre Company is a nonprofit organization for youth in ninth grade through age 20.

It is in-residence at the Elgin Community College Arts Center. This program is sponsored in part by a grant from the EFS Foundation. Fox Valley Theatre Company are also supported by grants from the Grand Victoria Foundation, Illinois Arts Council, and Florence B. and Cornelius A. Palmer Foundation.

The theater company is volunteer-based. At least one parent per performer is expected to help with the various aspects of the production, from sewing costumes to constructing the set; chaperoning the cast; and working set changes, lights and sound.

This production will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturday through Sept. 15 and 3 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 16. One performance for schools is scheduled for 9:45 a.m. Sept. 14. Cost for the public performances is $10 for adults, $8 for students and seniors.

To purchase tickets, contact the ECC Box Office at (847) 622-0300 or by go to www.elgin.edu/arts2index.asp and clicking on the "Theatre and Dance Events" link. Cost for the school show is $8 per student; educators should call (847) 214-7550 to reserve tickets.

The Blizzard Theatre is located at Elgin Community College's Arts Center, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin. For information about the show, go to www.cteelgin.com.