About 100 Bingham High students will help transform the school’s auditorium stage to Oregon Territory as they present the musical, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.”

The show will run at 7 p.m., Friday, Nov. 20 and Saturday, Nov. 21 as well as Monday, Nov. 23 and Tuesday, Nov. 24. There also will be a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday, Nov. 21. Tickets are $10 for premiere seating or $8 for general admission and can be purchased at binghamminers.org or at the door of the auditorium, 2160 West 10400 South.

Set during the 1850s, Milly, a pretty young cook, marries Adam, a grizzled woodsman, after a brief courtship. When the two return to Adam’s farm, Milly is shocked to meet his six ill-mannered brothers, all of whom live in his cabin. She promptly begins teaching the brothers proper behavior as well as how to court a woman. 

“I fell in love with the show when I was little and wanted to be one of the seven brides,” said Bingham director Liz Smith. “It’s been one of my favorites since then and a lot of the community has been asking for us to do this show. It’s a classic heart-felt story of what it means to love someone.”

Smith said she was “blown away by all the talent” who auditioned for the show. She said more than 120 students tried out in early September and those selected have been practicing two or more hours after school and six hours on Saturdays.

“It was hard to whittle it down to 65 on stage and I hated to break hearts because these students are so talented,” she said.

Smith is sure that the audience will appreciate not only the students’ acting talent, but also their singing and dancing.

“The audience will love the music and all the dancing and be swept away by their Prince Charmings,” she said.

Lori Metcalf is the choreographer and Ryan North is the music director. Jim Thompson will direct the 40 students in the orchestra.

Students also made the Oregon backdrops, full of fir trees.  The stage tech class carved a log frame to make a rustic bed in the cabin, Smith said.

“We try to do a lot to make the show realistic and fun for the audience and we try to offer fresh shows so we don’t repeat them often. We want our students to gain experiences in a variety of shows so they leave here with a wide knowledge of theatre,” she said.

Six theatre students this fall also took part in the school’s Shakespeare improvisation team, which recently took first at the Utah Shakespeare Competition. The team, coached by Bryce Hess, was made up of seniors Mikk Berger, Gannon Montoya, David Wayman and Keaton Swanagan, and juniors Seth Webb and Kamryn Brockbank.

The 39th annual Shakespeare Competition, hosted by the Utah Shakespeare Festival and Southern Utah University, held Oct. 1-3, allowed high school students from around the nation a chance to present material from Shakespearean literature in various artistic forms and be judged by professionals in their fields.

All told, 31 Bingham High students, under the direction of Michelle Robbins, participated in “Othello” in the ensemble contest, a monologue and two scenes, competing in the Tech Olympics as well as in improvisation at the national high school competition. Bingham competes with schools whose enrollment is similar — more than 2,000 students.

“All of our students performed well; I am very proud of them,” Robbins said.

Smith said that through this experience, students have the opportunity to see the work of high school students from other schools as well as get professional actors’ feedback. They also attended workshops and saw the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s “Dracula” and “Charlie’s Aunt” as well as Southern Utah University’s “Hamlet.”

Bingham theatre students also will be performing “The Importance of Being Earnest,” February 26, 27, 29 and March 1, 2016; a musical to be named May 5-7, 2016; and student-directe