Play time

A new Eccles Performing Arts Center at Dixie State College, an expanded Jewett Center arts complex at Westminster College and a second venue at Desert Star Theater are just some of the changes theatergoers will find this coming season.

Westminster College's expansion includes the addition of the Emma Eccles Jones Conservatory on the north side of the existing Jewett Center for the Performing Arts, tripling the size of the space. The addition houses the 150-seat Dumke Student Theatre and the 285-seat Vieve Gore Concert Hall.

The project also includes a new recording studio, expanded rehearsal space and enlargement of the Jay W. Lees Courage Theatre's backstage area.

Elsewhere along the Wasatch Front, however, some theaters are scaling back.

The SCERA Center in Orem appears to be turning into more of a "presentation house" — a theater that presents other companies' shows instead of producing its own. There is only one in-house production currently on the SCERA's calendar. Two other SCERA shows are being produced in collaboration with Utah Valley State College, and a third comes from the Utah Lyric Opera Society.

The VIP-Arts group in Springville has leased its longtime home, the Villa Playhouse, to formerly Provo-based Emerson-Smith College, and the community troupe itself will be staging productions — on an irregular basis — in the smaller Little Brown Theatre across the street.

Broadway touring productions this season include "The Producers," scheduled for a two-week run Nov. 16-28 at the Capitol Theatre, and "Thoroughly Modern Millie," April 20-24.

Theatergoers will also find an abundance of premieres — both world and regional.

One major premiere will be Hale Centre Theatre's North American debut of a stage version of "The Slipper and the Rose," based on the popular British film.

Pioneer Theatre Company is staging the first local version of "Disney's Beauty and the Beast," scheduled for a monthlong run in December. It's also been picked up by a handful of smaller companies in our area — but those dates cannot be formally announced until January, after PTC's production has closed. (If you see "to be announced" in the calendar, that may — or may not — indicate another "Beauty and the Beast.")

PTC is mixing its 2004-05 season with such sure-fire audience-pleasers as "West Side Story" and "Steel Magnolias," plus risky fare such as as James Joyce's "The Dead." (This season also marks Charles Morey's 20th year as PTC's artistic director.)