Pioneer Theatre Company offering a full season

In a day and age where many theaters are cutting the number of productions, choosing shows with small casts or eliminating live musicians, Pioneer Theatre Company, Utah's premiere professional theater company, continues its commitment to offering a full season.

Next year will be no different as PTC offers classic and contemporary pieces, live musicians and a bonus show.

"We're adding an eighth production this year instead of the traditional seven," said artistic director Charles Morey.

For that eighth production, PTC has chosen the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning rock musical "Rent."

"It is a terrific piece and a very important piece of theater," Morey said.

"It is a very optimistic play about young people striving to make their way in the world in a time of poverty and crisis. It's set in a world in which drugs are rampant and AIDS is rampant, appropriate for the life in New York's East Village in the '80s and '90s. But it's ultimately uplifting."

With "Rent's" pop-rock score and edgier themes, there were concerns that some of PTC's regular theatergoers may be uncomfortable with it. So PTC will offer the musical as an add-on, so patrons can more easily customize their season ticket package.

"We're trying to give people as many options and choices as they like, so they can see what we do," Morey said.

"We do such a wide range, such an eclectic mix. We can go in one season from 'White Christmas' to 'Rent' and from 'Hamlet' to a world premiere. I think that's very exciting."

"Rent" will run June 10-25, 2011.

The PTC season will kick off with Shakespeare's "Hamlet," Sept. 17-Oct. 2, 2010.

"This is arguably the greatest play ever written," Morey said. "Hamlet" was last performed at PTC 23 years ago, "and it's actually the play that opened the theater, in 1962."

And patrons can look forward to a shorter evening that traditional versions. "I'm looking at a production that will be severely cut, certainly under 3 hours, closer to 2½, and it will be contemporary and edgy," Morey said.

"Bram Stoker's Dracula," adapted by Charles Morey, Oct. 22-Nov. 6, 2010.

"We premiered this here 20 years ago," Morey said, noting that the play has been produced in regional and repertory theaters around the country, as well as high schools.