Festival offers activities, performances this weekend

The River Campus will host its arts festival this weekend, headlined by this year's production of "Newsies."

The student production will be the largest one of the summer. It's a good time to enjoy the talent of a collaboration of high school and students as well as professional actors. It should be a fantastic show, with an outdoor sampling of the show at 11 on Saturday and a full showing at 7:30 in the Rust Flexible Theatre. Encore performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, June 21 and 22 and at 2 p.m. Sunday and June 23.

The festival, the fifth annual, has much more to offer than just the show, however. The event is set from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. More than 200 Southeast employees, students and volunteers will be on hand to put on the events; last year some 4,000 people attended.

One-man retelling of Shakespeare's plays by professional actor Timothy Mooney will be performed in the Rust Flexible Theatre. "A Little Bit o' Shakespeare" is set for 11:15 a.m. and "Shakespeare-on-Demand" will be at 4 p.m. Both are new additions to the annual lineup.

The festival also will present aerial performances, experiential art activities, museum exhibition, animal petting zoos and writing workshops, according to a recent story by reporter Joshua Hartwig. The activities include a free, performance of "The Aristocats KIDS" at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday in Bedell Performance Hall stage, which will consist of performers ages 9 to 14. Additional ticketed performances of "The Aristocats KIDS" are set for 7:30 tonight and 2 p.m. Sunday.

The festival should be a lot of fun. We hope you have a chance to check out the creativity this weekend at the River Campus.