Mark Cofta’s theater picks: Local stage stars today and tomorrow

April means the college year’s end, and theater programs are staging their final productions and graduating young theater artists, many of whom will become local stars.

Temple University Theaters close their season with two productions of Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information (April 19 through 30), which explores romance in our technological age. MFA candidates Liz Carlson and Noah Herman each direct the play’s 57 short scenes, written to be arranged in any order, in two rotating versions. Seeing either will be fun; seeing both, a revelation.

The Theater Program of Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges premieres Particular Risk (April 7 through 15), written by Jeremy Gable and directed by guest Sam Tower, with electronic artist Rachel Ishikawa’s original score. The shows in Bryn Mawr’s Hepburn Teaching Theater tend to be ensemble-based, intellectually challenging, and artistically sublime. This psychedelic noir is set in 1971 Asbury Park, NJ.

The University of the Arts ends April with four distinctly different Senior Shows, all directed by, and three written or devised by, graduating students. Josh Thorps's autobiographical drama A Little More Spring and the theatrical happening The Stone Groove Shagadelic Disco, conceived by Melissa Treshock, play April 20 through 22. The following weekend, April 27 through 30, Randi Alexis Hickey's Now We Are Six, a musical adaptation of A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh poems, plays in repertory with Noah Haidle's Mr. Marmalade, directed by Kirsten Cills. Professional directors mentor all four shows.

Musical students

Villanova University’s annual musical is Little Women: The Broadway Musical (March 28 through April 9) — yes, that’s the title — by Allan Knee (book), Jason Howland (music), and Mindi Dickstein (lyrics), based on Louisa May Alcott’s American classic. Valerie Joyce directs the popular story of four New England sisters during the Civil War.

Arcadia University’s theater program continues to grow. Their four-play season ends with Spitfire Grill (April 13 through 24), a musical by James Valcq and Fred Alley based on the 1996 film, about a young woman just released from prison who starts her life anew in a small Wisconsin town. Spitfire Grill won the 2001 Richard Rodgers Production Award.

Puppets for adults, a legend for kids

The Philadelphia Theatre Company’s production of Hand to God (March 31 through April 30) features Mum Puppettheatre founder Robert Smythe as puppet designer and movement director, and an all-Philly cast led by Grace Gonglewski. A busy Matt Pfeiffer directs (his A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Arden is extended through April 15 — here’s my review). Robert Askins’s Tony Award-nominated comedy, one of the most-produced plays this season across America, is about the hilarious chaos that erupts when puppets take over the Christian Puppet Ministry in Cypress, Texas.

While Hand to God is decidedly not for kids, the world premiere of The Light Princess (April 5 through May 28) definitely is. It’s adapted by Anthony Lawton (book and lyrics), from George MacDonald’s story, with music by Alex Bechtel. The Arden Children’s Theatre production, directed by Steve Pacek, tells the Scottish legend of a teenager who has no gravity: she floats in the air, unable to ever touch the ground, and feels nothing for others. Brett Robinson plays the title role, and the show’s writers, accomplished performers both, are in the cast.

Stolen improv

Tongue & Groove Spontaneous Theater, the improvisational troupe unlike any other, performs two public shows this month. Their regular second Friday (April 14) at the Playground at the Adrienne will be ART, in which audience members suggest painting or sculpture titles for transitional moments in their lives, which the ensemble instantly turns into monologues and scenes. On April 15 at the Drake, they’ll premiere a new format for their emotionally genuine improvs: The Stolen Set Series, in which they adopt a play’s setting and themes. At the Drake, an evening titled Culture Clash happens on the set of InterAct Theatre Company’s You for Me for You (running through April 16), beginning with anonymous suggestions from the audience. Bobbi Block’s troupe just keeps on innovating.