Diverse set of plays this week

Shakespeare, Moliere, a couple of Broadway musicals and two alternating Christmas revues are among the diverse stage productions opening this week.

• THE WINTER'S TALE, Shakespeare's classic comedy addressing the lighter side of insane jealousy, is being staged by the University of Utah's Department of Theatre Wednesday through Nov. 18 in the Babcock Theatre, located on the lower level of Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre.

Guest director Michael Barakiva's cast includes Brandon Econ as Leontes, king of Sicilia; Patrick Harris as Polixenes, king of Bohemia; Nicol Razon as Hermione, the Sicilian queen suspected unjustly of infidelity; Nao Dobashi as Perdita, daughter of Leontes and Hermione; and Andrew Abbott as Florizel, who is in love with Perdita.

Curtain is 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday the first week and Thursday-Saturday the second week, and at 7 p.m. on Sundays, with one matinee at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17. Tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for all students (581-7100, www.kingtix.com or in person at the Kingsbury Hall box office).

There will be a free panel discussion at 6 p.m. Friday in the Babcock Theatre.

• AMERICAN HEROES ALL, tales of American struggles from Valley Forge through the Korean conflict, compiled by Albert B. Tibbets, will be presented on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. during this month's gathering of the Babcock Performing Readers.

Tibbets has compiled stories from such renowned writers as William Faulkner, Stephen Crane and Alexander Woolcott for eight anecdotes from the American Revolution, the Alamo and more contemporary battles. The common link is that each soldier went into battle to protect the rights of families and friends, so they could live their own kind of life. Joyce Skidmore is directing.

Admission, parking and refreshments are free. The venue is the Little Theatre of the University of Utah's Student Union Building.

• TARTUFFE, French playwright Moliere's 1664 farce about hypocrisy, is being staged Thursday through Nov. 17 by the Westminster Players in the Courage Theatre of Westminster College's Jewett Center for the Performing Arts, 1250 E. 1700 South.

Directed by Michael Vought of the college's theater department, the cast includes Patrick C. Kibbe in the title role, a Rasputin-like priest whose duplicity brings catastrophic consequences during his visit to the home of the wealthy and gullible Orgon, played by Connor Montgomery.

Other players in key roles include Ashley Babbit as Madame Pernelle, Orgon's mother; Kathryn Hopkins as Elmire, Orgon's second wife; Tim Hinojosa as Cleante, Orgon's brother-in-law; Christie Porter as Mariane, Orgon's daughter; and Eric Lekman as Valere, her fiance.