Actress Laura Beth Cannon works on a scene from "South pacific."

The Springville Community Theater, the 37-year-old theater group, is back in the Springville Middle School for their summer production of South Pacific.  

Tickets go on sale today. .  Show dates are August 1, 2, 3 at 7 p.m. and August 4 at 2 p.m. Ticket prices are $8 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under.  

For the past four weeks, cast and crew have been working to bring the South Sea Islands to St. Clair County. Artist Deborah Mattox and her crew of painters are creating a 25′ x 12′ painting of the island of Bali Ha’i which is a centerpiece in the story as well as the backdrop for the show.  Set builders Sean Andrews, Ken Xydias, Bill Fuqua, Scott Crumpton and Jack Crumpton have created extensions to the existing stage to accommodate the 50+ cast members in the show, as well as a working shower for the famous hair-washing scene and other exotic set pieces.  Choreographers Jessica Lloyd, Laura McKenzie and Carla Lesley and pianists Karen Krekelberg, Kelley Neal, and Carrie Self have been hard at work preparing the cast for the many musical numbers that are the main calling card of the famous show. June Morgan Mack is directing the production.

This Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, with no less than two Pulitzer Prizes to its credit and its record of nearly five years on Broadway, will star Laura Beth Cannon as the cockeyed optimist Nellie Forbush along with Andy Wallace as the sophisticated French planter Emile DeBeque. Nellie, a Navy nurse from Little Rock, Arkansas is as “corny as Kansas in August”, and will be singing two of the most famous songs of the show – “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy” and “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair.”  The exiled Frenchman, Emile DeBeque, will be singing the show’s immortal love songs, “Some Enchanted Evening” and “This Nearly Was Mine.”  The story also tells of Joe Cable (played by Ben McKenzie), a young Marine Lieutenant who becomes enchanted by a native girl, Liat (played by Haley Baker). Both romances are touched with the contrast of two worlds meeting, of alien individuals thrown together in a remote island setting against the backdrop of World War II.

The cast also includes Brandi Caldwell and Lori Hebson double-cast as the rowdy Bloody Mary, Dallas Nolen as Billis, the fun-loving Seabee who is always intent on swinging a deal and Mike McKenzie and Amber Ellis as Naval officers, with a cast of 20 other roles.

Tickets may be reserved online or by phone.  Visit the website at Springvillecommunitytheater.com.  For phone reservations, call Donna Smith, 205-937-0646 Cynthia Lesley, 205-467-7066.