LOCAL PROF SPENDS FALL IN BRITISH THEATERS

When a play or musical pauses for the interval (intermission) in London, vendors stream down the aisles selling ice cream bars. Dennis C. Seyer saw that delicious sight about 40 times during the fall semester he spent as a professor in the Missouri London Program.

Seyer, an associate professor of theater at Southeast Missouri State University, taught musical theater and technical theater production to the Missouri students enrolled in the program. The idea was to use London as their classroom.

They did. Five Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals were in town, including the new show titled "The Beautiful Game." Set in 1969 in Belfast, it's a coming-of-age story built around a championship soccer match.

"Fosse," "The Mikado," "The Lion King," "Blood Brothers," "The Mousetrap," productions of the uniquely British dramatic form called pantomime, dance performances and a host of Shakespearean plays were on the curriculum, including seeing Vanessa Redgrave at The Globe in "The Tempest."

There were backstage tours of London theaters, a trip to the ruins of a Roman theater discovered in the 1930s, attended a makeup workshop at London's theater museum, and visited Shakespeare's reconstructed Globe and The Rose.

The foundation of the Rose, a theater built in 1587, was uncovered in 1989 when an office building was torn down. The development company left a portion of the land open so the foundation could be preserved and viewed by the public.

Seyer raves over the very popular "Sing-Along Sound of Music," an audience participation production that uses the classic film musical as its raw material. Audience members wave eidelweiss and dress up like characters in the movie in a much gentler version of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" phenomenon. That show will be presented in St. Louis at the Fox Theatre beginning Jan. 19.

In Great Britain, going to the theater is a tradition for everyone, Seyer says.

"You can go every night if you prefer," he said. "It's a part of life, and it doesn't matter if the shows have name' stars."

The productions are uncountable, and ticket prices are low compared to New York, where a ticket to a musical can cost $75 to $85.

Seyer doubts whether "The Beautiful Game" will be brought to America because soccer is a much more important sport in Europe than it is here.

All the students in the Missouri London Program take a course on British life and culture. After guest lecturers are brought in to talk about subjects such as prehistoric Britain, for instance, a field trip to Stonehenge follows. Seventy-seven students were enrolled in the program, including three from Southeast.

The students and professors in the program received a 10-day fall break. Seyer and his wife, Ellen, and their son, Geoffrey, went to France. On his own, Seyer journeyed to the Christmas market in Cologne, Germany, and to the town of Cheddar in Great Britain, known for its gorge as well as its cheese.

In March, Seyer will direct the University Theatre's production of "Babes in Arms."

This spring, he will lead theater tours to New York City and to Ireland. Organizational meetings will be held at 6 p.m. Monday in Room 316 of the Grauel Building for the New York trip and at 6 p.m. Jan. 22 for the Ireland trip. The trips are March 16 through 21 for New York and June 21 through 30 for Ireland.

Seyer, who is the University Theatre's technical director, says he returned from London with many new ideas about theater production and computerized lighting in particular. He thinks two plays he saw, "Art" and "Copenhagen," could be produced in the Rose Theatre someday -- Cape Girardeau's Rose Theatre.