Dinner theatre is as hot in Winfield as jazz is in Chicago. Developed at Southwestern College in the ’60s and at Horsefeathers and Applesauce for 25 years, it made a comeback last year with the fall musical “Myths and Hymns.”   This has prompted Southwestern College Campus Players to plan another dinner theatre experience with “Chicago.”
 
“Theatre patrons in our region of Kansas and northern Oklahoma have spent over 30 years attending dinner theatre along with Southwestern College theatre productions or during the seasons of Horsefeathers and Applesauce. So they are excited for the opportunity to attend another dinner theatre production,” says SC theatre professor and director Allyson Moon.
 
The performances will be March 3, 4, 5, and 6.  The first three dinners will start at 6 p.m. with the show curtain at 7:30 p.m.  A final performance is set for Sunday, March 6, with dinner at 12:30 p.m. and the show at 2 p.m.  The cost for dinner and the show is $25. Show-only tickets are $10 for adults.  For special senior citizen, student, and youth tickets or information about the shows call the SC performing arts office at (620) 221-7720.

Dinner manager Arden Moon, junior business major, says this experience “will be a high class dinner with a menu inspired by food of the 1920’s and the feel of a speakeasy.”  Seating will be limited to 100 diners who will be able to attend the dinner and receive preferential seating for the show. 

“Chicago” will be performed in Messenger Recital Hall in the Darbeth Fine Arts Building as Richardson Auditorium is currently closed for full renovation as a performing arts center. 

“It will be like the great old days of dinner theatre at SC that I remember so well,” says Arden Moon, who was born and raised during the heyday of Horsefeathers and Applesauce.  “It is a real privilege and thrill to move from a kid waiter and actor to dinner manager.”