Steeple Players Stage 'SchoolHouse Rock Live!' Through 9/27

SchoolHouse Rock Live!, the Emmy Award-winning 1970s Saturday morning cartoon series that taught history, grammar, math, science and politics through clever, tuneful songs, is now instructing a whole new generation to "Unpack Your Adjectives" and "Do the Circulations" in the theatre production now onstage at Hendersonville' Steeple Players Theatre through September 27.

The story centers on Tom (played by Rob Pitt), a nerve-wracked teacher who is nervous about his first day on the job and tries to relax by watching TV-only to have various characters representing different facets of his personality emerge from the set and show him how to win students over with imagination and music. Schoolhouse Rock songs like "Just a Bill," "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly" and "Conjunction Junction" are included in the show's score.

Steeple Players' production features a cast of local actors, ages eight to 30something, spinning the imaginative story and inviting the audience to sing along. In addition to Pitt, other cast members include Anastasia Teel, Amberly Pitt, Lauren Sterban, Ryan Crowder and Whitney Padgett.

Cay and David Burton are co-directors. David Barton is on-leave from playing Daddy Warbucks in the national tour of Annie, a role to which he will return later this fall.

The show continues at the theatre, 260 W. Main Street, Suite 204, in Hendersonville, Friday, September 18, through Sunday, September 27. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. (CDT) on Friday and Saturday nights, with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

For tickets, call the theatre box office at (615) 826-6037; for further information about the upcoming season at Steeple Players Theatre, visit their website at www.steepleplayers.org.