Balanced entertainment

You've all heard of and seen the food pyramid, the USDA's recommended servings for a balanced diet. That concept -- the thought that one only needs or can handle certain amounts of certain things -- applies to other elements in our lives.

Southeast Missouri State University just announced the entertainment nuggets it will be serving at the River Campus for the 2009-2010 season.

For its third year, the River Campus will host roughly the same mix of student productions, touring shows and national acts balancing the lineup between dance and music flavors and theatrical productions.

Let's call it the River Campus Yearly Guidelines for Healthy Enlightenment and Balanced Entertainment. Well, that doesn't really roll of the tongue, though, does it? RCYGHEBE? I'm going to go with the Fun Guide Pyramid.

On the bottom, supporting the pyramid, you have student productions of symphony, dance and theater. It is a campus, after all, no students, no campus.

Over the course of the year, you fill up on student productions, plays like "The Children's Hour" and Neil Simon's "Rumors," musicals like "Little Shop of Horrors" and the two dance concerts. This gives the students a chance to show and grow and gives the community a chance to see their local talent.

That's a good helping of theater and dance. Let's put some music on top of it to help the dialogue and dos-a-dos go down. A movement roughly every other month sounds healthy.

The Southeast Symphony Orchestra has five scheduled concerts in Bedell Performance Hall.

We all need treats every now and then. The touring series might look like the other categories with its mix of dance, theater and music shows, but it's more entertainment dense, therefore we need less of it.

"The Queen of Bingo" and "TAO -- The Martial Art of Drumming" pack enough of an exotic and talent punch that we can survive, and family-centered shows like "Annie" and "Sleeping Beauty" make for a well-balanced dose of theater fun.

I have no doubt that at some point, we'll see one of our local talents come back through in that category. Enjoy your entertainment serving for 2009-2010.