USU's OLRC Presents 'An Inspector Calls' at Caine Lyric Theatre

Old Lyric Repertory Company in the Caine School of the Arts at Utah State University opens its fourth show with An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley. Other shows in rolling repertory this season are The Foreigner, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and The Importance of Being Earnest. Performances are June 11-Aug 1 in the historic Caine Lyric Theatre (28 W. Center Street, Logan).

Tickets range from $19-$25 and senior/youth/USU faculty staff discounts are available by calling the Caine School of the Arts Box Office at 435-797-8022 or 435-752-1500, visiting the box office online, or at the door.

 

Directed by Colin Johnson, An Inspector Calls stars local favorites Kent Hadfield as Arthur Birling and Keri Larsen as Sybil Birling. Other actors include Luke Bybee as Gerald Croft, Leslie Aldridge as Sheila Birling, Andy Johnson as Eric Birling, Felicia Stehmeier as Edna and Phillip R. Lowe as Inspector Goole.

 

The play was written in 1945 but is set in 1912 Victorian England. In the play, Arthur Birling, a prosperous manufacturer holds a family dinner party to celebrate his daughter’s engagement. Into this cozy scene intrudes the harsh figure of a police inspector investigating the suicide of a young, working-class woman. Under the pressure of his interrogation, every member of the family turns out to have a shameful secret that links each of them to her death.

 

“In An Inspector Calls, Priestley [the playwright], like the authors of morality plays in the late Middle Ages, intends to instruct his audiences about the condition of humanity, caught between the religious need for goodness and the temptations of evil,” the director said.

 

Following its opening, An Inspector Calls joins the rotating OLRC calendar with performances July 10, 11 (evening and matinee), 14, 24, 29 and Aug. 1. During a three week period July 14-18, 22-25 and 28-Aug. 1, all four of the OLRC’s productions can be seen in combinations with a different production each night.

 

The Old Lyric Repertory Company is an advanced program in the Department of Theatre Arts and the Caine School of the Arts at Utah State University, as well as the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

 

For information on the OLRC, including group ticket sales, call Public Relations and Marketing Director Sally Okelberry, (435) 797-1500, or email sally.okelberry@usu.edu.