NEWS RELEASE

Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11, 2006

Contact: Contact: Mike Emery
713.743.8186 (office)
713.415.6551 (pager)
pemery@uh.edu

CHILDREN’S THEATRE FEST AT UH SHOWS FANCY FOOTWORK
IN ‘THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER’

When a shoemaker is short of supplies, he can’t rely on Nike, K-Swiss or Reebok to bail him out. Instead, he is helped by a pair of handy elves, who use their fast fingers to create fantastic footwear.

Audiences can see what happens next as the University of Houston’s Children’s Theatre Festival presents “The Elves and the Shoemaker.” This Brothers Grimm classic – adapted by Kate Pogue – begins July 13 in the Lyndall Finley Wortham Theatre located in the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at UH.

Directed by Brian Byrnes, associate professor of theater, the play remains faithful to the original story while injecting high-energy antics aimed at entertaining audience members of all ages.

“The characters’ movements come across as very off-the-wall and spontaneous, but they are in fact, very intricate,” Byrnes said. “The set also helps define the action on stage as it actually creates a perspective that distinguishes the physical sizes of the human characters and the elves.”

Sidney Berger, director of UH’s School of Theatre, and Bren Dubay founded CTF in 1978. Each year, more than 25,000 theater-goers delight in these colorful summer productions that feature professional casts and crews.

Tickets are $9 for adults and $8 for children 14 and under. For more information about the Children’s Theatre Festival, visit www.hfac.uh.edu/theatre/ctf/home.html or call (713) 743-2929.

WHAT: Children’s Theatre Festival: “The Elves and the Shoemaker”
WHEN: 10:30 a.m. July 13 – 14, 17 – 20, 26 – 28
2 p.m. July 16
1 p.m. July 19 - 20
WHERE: Lyndall Finley Wortham Theatre/Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at UH
University of Houston - Entrance 16
Houston, TX 77204-5017
WHO: The University of Houston’s School of Theatre

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.