The dinner theatre musical, which has become a major source of Winfield area entertainment, will return to Southwestern College next week, Nov. 12 through 15, with the Campus Players theatre department production of “Myths and Hymns.”
     
This dinner theatre celebrates the 40th anniversary of the first musical dinner theatre held at Southwestern in the 1969-70 school year, when the theatre department presented the musical “Tom Jones” in the Helen Graham Little Theatre.  Norman and Roxy Callison conceived the idea of presenting the short English musical in a unique way, serving the audience an English supper, and then allowing the audience to continue to sit at their tables to enjoy the performance.  
         
“It was a small, intimate musical, and particularly successful dinner theatre,” says Roger Moon, director of the SC production of “Myths and Hymns.”  “It was my senior year and I was the narrator of the show.  Norman and Roxy created a wonderful English stew, and had us in the cast serve the meal while the small musical combo that accompanied the show entertained the audience. I don’t know if the Callisons had ever been to a dinner theatre like that, but they figured it out and the audiences had as much fun as we did.  They obviously mastered the dinner theatre art, which they turned into a summer tradition starting in the summer of 1973.”
          
“Myths and Hymns,” the SC fall musical, also is a small, intimate musical, according to Cynthia Compton, musical director of the production.  The music of Adam Guettel (grandson of Richard Rodgers) will be performed in and around the audience in much the way it was in that production of “Tom Jones.”  Dinner music that salutes productions created by Rodgers & Hammerstein, along with those of Mary Rodgers (Guettel’s mother) will accompany the dinner.  
          
Allyson Moon, current Southwestern College professor of theatre, came to Southwestern College as a student in 1974, experiencing the Callison dinner theatres as both a company member for early years of SC summer dinner theatre Horsefeathers and Applesauce, along with winter dinner theatre productions such as Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” also performed in the Little Theatre, with a New York dinner.  
          
“Norman and Roxy always crafted a spectacular dinner menu that fit perfectly with the production setting and themes, with items frequently named after characters from the play,” Moon says.            The “Myths and Hymns” dinner will continue that quality and theme connection, providing the audience with “sparkling grape Zeus” and a contemporary “Greek dinner for the gods.”  
          
Allyson Moon, who returned to the SC faculty and managed Horsefeathers and Applesauce summer dinner theatre during its latter years, is mentoring and teaching dinner management and design to Elizabeth Higbee, senior SC theatre major.  Together they are planning the menu and serving with SC’s Sodexho manager Harold Harris, who became the chef for the 25th season of Horsefeathers.  
         
“He is excellent in both the creation of the food and its serving,” Allyson says, “and we are very lucky to have him helping us create this dinner experience.”  Higbee will develop her skills at management of “Myths and Hymns” cast/waiters for the dinner. “We hope this is the beginning of a new generation of SC dinner theatre,” Moon says. 
         
Tickets for the dinner and show, which begins at 6:30 on November 13, are available by calling Lou Tharp at 221-7720 at the SC Performing Arts Office.  The “Myths and Hymns” show will follow at 7:30.  Evening performances with dinner continue on Friday and Saturday, November 13 and 14, and will be followed by a Sunday dinner at 12:30 on the Nov. 15, followed by a 1:30 matinee performance.  Seating is limited and requires reservations.

Dinner and show tickets are $22 for adults; $20 for senior citizens; $17 for students; and $15 for youth.  Show only tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for non-SC students.  Proceeds from the dinner will help Campus Players take their “Eagerheart” production on tour to England in December.  For more information call the SC box office at (620) 221-7720.