First Year Players to present ‘West Side Story’ April 12-14

First Year Players to present ‘West Side Story’ April 12-14April 03, 2007SU News ServicesSUnews@syr.edu

First Year Players (FYP), the student-run musical theater organization at Syracuse University, will present its annual spring musical April 12-14 at 8 p.m. in Goldstein Auditorium in the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center. This year’s production, “West Side Story,” features a cast of 26 first-year and transfer students and is sponsored by SU’s Pulse and Student Association.

Tickets — $7 for general admission and $4 for SU faculty, staff and students with valid SU I.D. — are available at the Schine Box Office, (315) 443-4517. Paid parking for the April 12 performance will be available in the Marion and Comstock lots, at the SU rate. Parking in both lots will be free for the April 13-14 performances.

“West Side Story,” written by Arthur Laurents with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and music by Leonard Bernstein, tells the story of forbidden love and two feuding gangs in New York during the 1950s. The Jets, an all-white gang from Manhattan, and the Sharks, a Puerto Rican gang who have just come to New York, are at odds on the city’s west side. When Tony, a Jet, falls in love with Maria, the sister of Shark leader Bernardo, they find that love can be difficult when different worlds collide.

First Year Players was founded in 1992 with the goal of providing first-year, non-drama majors the opportunity to showcase singing, dancing and acting talents. Many of the students return to join the upper-class production staff that runs the organization and produces events. This year, 50 students comprise that staff.

For more information, visit http://students.syr.edu/firstyearplayers.