Theatre at the Center is the Drama program of the Lawrence Arts Center which seeks to provide the best in local and touring theatre for and with youth. For years, the Center’s Seem-To-Be Players professional children’s theatre toured and educated children throughout the heartland of America and the nation. The company played in more than 42 states, 230 + communities for over 500,000 children and families. The Players performed The Emperor's New Clothes, The Boston Tea Party, American Tall Tales, The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Los Zapatos Magicos; Pedro's Magic Shoes, Amelia Earhart; First Lady of Flight, The Adventures of Stuart Little, Rapunzel and many, many more titles during 25+ years of national touring.

At home, the company is producing such ‘age-appropriate' pieces of theatre as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (large cast version), The Ice Wolf, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and premiering such works as Max Bush's Kara in Black and Ric Averill's own There's an Eyeball in My Soup.

Future projects include Grotesque Arabesque; a Rock Opera with Modern Dance based on the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe. See links below to music from this piece.

And in development ...

Grotesque Arabesque: A Rock Opera With Modern Dance Based On The Life And Works Of Edgar Allan Poe

This project is in development and has been workshopped/developed as follows:

The 2005 Theatre in the World Festival at San Diego State University’s Theatre of the World Festival performed a staged reading/singing of the then partially completed work.

The piece was featured in a week long 2008 residency with the 940 Dance Company at the Merryman Performing Arts Center in Kearney, Nebraska, which culminated in a performance with a rock band, the professional dance company, local student dancers and both professional and student singers.

In 2008, the project became a finalist for the Creativity in Motion award and was workshopped with a professional rock band headlined by Eric Mardis in Lawrence, Kansas. A recording of the three movements of the Morella story from the rock opera is available on Ric Averill’s music MySpace page. Here's the LINK

The sections in question are titled Morella; Part One, Morella; Aria and Morella; Part Three. Other original music by Averill may be found on the same site.

This same material was workshopped for the grant with the 940 Dance company and excerpts of that production may be seen below:

In 2009, as part of the Urban Culture Project in Kansas City, Missouri, La Esquina arts space featured The Coppelia Project, above, for three weekends, but also featured a performance of the Morella story from the Poe Opera with modern dance. Video of that performance is forthcoming.

Ric Averill- Bio

Currently Drama and Film Program Director at the Lawrence Arts Center, Ric Averill was the Artistic Director and principal playwright, composer and director for the Seem-To-Be Players professional national touring children's theatre company for over 30 years. Ric has made multiple appearances at the John F. Kennedy Center's New Visions/New Voices new play development symposium and the Indianapolis Bonderman Youth Theatre Playwriting Symposium. Averill is a 2006 recipient of an Aurand Harris Fellowship from the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America. More than twelve of Ric’s plays are available from Dramatic Publishing.

Included among Ric's many commissions are Dreams Carved from Stone about the life of Crazy Horse sculptor Korczak Ziolkowsky which premiered at the Black Hills Playhouse in June of 2008, the Kennedy Center's Alice in Wonderland, First Stage Milwaukee's Little Drummer Boy, the Coterie Theatre's Frankenstein and the Kansas Health Foundation's Red Blood and High Purpose.  Ric's fusion of music and theatre culminated in an opera for children based on the story of The Emperor's New Clothes commissioned by the Kennedy Center for a world premiere in November of 2001 and a national tour in 2003-2004.

Current projects include; an opera with rock music and modern dance based on the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe entitled Grotesque Arabesque; and a new play called There’s an Eyeball in My Soup, written with niece, Sierra Cyrdrus, which will premiere at Theatre at the Center in May of 2009. With son, Will, Averill has a screenplay, Riding the Pine, currently in production.

Thank you to these donors and show sponsors for Theatre at the Center – the Lawrence Arts Center ’s Film and Drama program for the 2008-2009 season – we’re happy to add YOUR name to this list at any time!

First, our program Sponsor:

Show Sponsors: Beverly Smith Billings, in honor of Bob Billings, Downtown Lawrence Association, Fun and Games, Ron & Colette Gaches, Gaches, Braden, Barbee and Associates, Gould Evans Associates, Anne and David Hollond, Tom and Barbara Hollister, Sharon and Jim Hamilton, Lawrence Family Vision Clinic, Local Burger, McDonald’s of Lawrence, Bill & Marlene Penny, Sarah’s Fabrics, Susan and Brad Tate, Treanor Architects, P.A., Paul VanVleck and Vinland Valley Nursery.

Elizabeth Averill, Beverly Smith Billings, Margaret & Jeff Carlin, Terri & Keith Chauvin, Web & Joan Golden, Hilda Enoch, Dr. Helen Gilles, Ann & Dave Hollond, Sharon & Jim Hammond, Suzan Hill, Jackie & Russell Hilton, Thomas & Barbara Hollister, Dennis & Deanna Hoss, Tamara & Derek Ishmael, Angela & Jeremy Johnson, Kelly Jones, Betty Laird, Linda & John Lungstrum, Linda & Doug McKay, Janice & Ken Meissbach, Anne & Craig Patterson, Paula Shaver, Payless Shoe Source, Seven Trees Foundation, Jan Sheldon and Jim Sherman, Larry & Suzanne Sherr, Susan & Brad Tate, Paul Van Vleck, Lori Wlaton, Agnes Walsh & Craig West, Ann & Pete Wiklund, and YOU!