Enjoy a Spring Sampler At The PAC!

Theatre fans are going to love April at the PAC. Three plays will be presented this month, along with a sampling of dance, opera and music.

Theatre Tulsa finishes its run of the comedy Up the Down Staircase, April 2 – 4. This collaboration between Clark Theatre and Theatre Tulsa is about a young English teacher's experiences at a new job. Challenges with the administration, her students and a budding romance create comic moments and heartbreak in a play based on the book by Bel Kaufman.

ORU Theatre Department presents a relatively new play, the 2006 drama, The Vertical Hour, penned by British playwright David Hare. The current Iraq war and unsettling dynamics between a young man, his fiancée and the man's womanizing father make for an engaging drama about family, politics and self-reflection. The Vertical Hour runs April 16 – 19.

American Theatre Company's, A Picasso, is a two-person drama that addresses the role and ownership of art in society. The play unfolds in wartime Paris, where an attractive “cultural attaché” is trying to get Picasso to identify his work so it can be used in the Nazi's campaign against degenerate art. Craig Walter and Susan Dergoul star. Play dates are April 23 – May 2.

Tulsa Symphony Orchestra returns this month with Stay Up Late and Catch Some Z's on April 3. The Z's refer to 20-year-old guest pianist Zuo Zhang and Maestro Gerhardt Zimmermann. Zhang took home the first-place prize at the Rotary Club of Tulsa's 2007 Crescendo Music Awards. The evening's roster includes Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, and Zhang performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1.

Choregus Productions wraps up a full season of entertainment at the PAC with the exciting dance company Aspen Santa Fe Ballet (ASFB) on April 14 – 15. ASFB, noted for its athleticism, will perform three to four pieces from its eclectic repertoire that contains works by some of the world's foremost choreographers, such as Twyla Tharp, Jorma Elo and Paul Taylor. Discounts are available.

Tulsa Opera's season also draws to a close with Donizetti's masterful L'Elisir D'Amore, April 25, May 1 and May 3. Tulsa audiences haven't seen this work in 34 years. The opera is set in a 19th-century Basque village and is acclaimed as one of the greatest comedic Bel Canto operas.

The Tulsa Press Club Educational and Charitable Trust returns to the PAC with three nights of hilarity and hijinks. The group presents its 2009 Gridiron Show titled, “Stimulate This! Or You Can't Fight/Find City Hall!” – April 30 and May 1 – 2. The annual Roasting Ear Award will be presented to Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor.

Grab your lunch and enjoy free concerts on April 1 (Lorelei Barton, harp), April 8 (Babette Belter, clarinet) and April 15 (Mary Sallee, piano, and Christian Morren, soprano). Brown Bag It concerts begin at noon in the PAC's Westby Pavilion.

In the PAC's Gallery this month is a show of 40 years of posters from the Art Directors Club of Tulsa. 40 FOR 40 is available for viewing April 3 – 25.

For more information about the following events, visit: www.TulsaPac.com