For the City Times

WISCONSIN RAPIDS — Wisconsin Rapids Community Theatre will be hosting a youth production this weekend.

Presented by HOPO Productions, “The Snow White Variety Show” is written by Brian D. Taylor, and directed by Stephanie Hoerth. The show is sponsored by U.S. Bank and the Wisconsin Rapids Optimists Club. Over 50 area youth from ages 6-18 will participate in this weekend’s HOPO production.

What’s HOPO?

According to Ellen Roeseler, “HOPO is an intense, one-week experience where kids who love theatre or want to know more about it rehearse every day, all day, for one week and put on two performances on the weekend. Directed by co-founder Stephanie Hoerth, it’s a wild, fun ride from beginning to end. Each year, Stephanie picks scripts to include as many kids as possible, and in some years – like this one – has extra parts written to accommodate even more.”

“The Snow White Variety Show” combines all the fun of just about every TV-show genre you can imagine jam-packed into this fast-paced comedy. The setting is Real Talk with Fairytale Legends, a talk show featuring the seven dwarves. They tell the story of Snow White as the Fairytale Players bring it to life.

Each dwarf’s personality is reflected in the players’ reenactment, so that at any given moment, the story can be anything from a home improvement show to a Shakespeare sword fight and anything in between. There’s even hilarious commercial breaks and a “Miss Fairest of Them All” beauty pageant.

It all culminates in a mad-dash ending of fast-changing genres that sets the record straight on Snow White’s happily ever after. This variety show spoof of the fairytale classic that according to Roeseler, literally has something for everyone.

This family-friendly show runs Saturday, August 5 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, August 6 at 2:00 p.m. at the WRCT auditorium in the Centralia Center of the Rapids Mall. Tickets are $8 each and are available by calling the WRCT office at 715-421-0435, emailing us at wrct@wctc.net, or at the door prior to the show.

WRCT office hours are 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tuesday – Friday. And new this year – online ticketing is available! Just go to the WRCT webpage – www.wrctheatre.org – and click on the “Buy Tickets Now” link.