Traditional tales twisted in troupe's productions

When selecting a play for her Musical Theatre Workshops, Director Mickey Lubeck often focuses on the familiar, but with a twist.

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Let Down Your Hair, Rapunzel! will be staged at 7 p.m. Saturday at Greenbrier High School.

"It's a story of it's OK to be different," Lubeck said.

The plot features princes with very different ambitions. One prince wants to be a body builder. Another wants to be a stock broker. The third prince wants to be a scientist.

When a peasant girl, Rapunzel Schwartzbuckle, is kidnapped by the evil witch Izwitch, the princes attempt to save her.

The theater troupe, which features child actors, is planning a production of another well-known story with a twist for next month.

"Romeo and Harriett is a parody of Romeo and Juliet . It's an updated version," said Lubeck.

Set in Manhattan, Romeo and Harriett pits the feuding owners of department stores against each other. Some disco and a rap in iambic pentameter make it a very different version of Shakespeare's classic tale of star-crossed lovers.

"It has the flavor of Shakespeare," Lubeck said. "There's a lot of play on words."

Romeo's family owns higher-end stores, while Harriett is the heiress to a discount giant. The offspring of the feuding families meet at The Globe, a trendy teen hangout.

Nathan Lubeck, a 16-year-old home-schooled student, and P.J. Pirkle, a Lakeside High School junior, play the lead roles.

Nathan said the role is one of the more unusual characters he's played.

"I go from singing Saturday Night Fever to country to rap," he said.

In addition, his character flip-flops between a more refined version of the English language to modern conversational English.

The "tragic comedy" will be presented at 3 and 7 p.m. April 18 at Greenbrier High School.

Tickets cost $10 for adults, $5 for children and children 5 and younger are admitted free for both plays.

For information, call (706) 869-0089 or (706) 231-1759.