Plan-B to present staged reading of 'Ugly to the Bone' Compiled by Ellen Fagg Plan-B Theatre presents a staged reading of Cort Brinkerhoff's "Ugly to the Bone," a new play by the Utah playwright billed as a "contemporary glimpse inside polygamy." The workshop will feature actors April Fossen, Mark Fossen, Andra Harbold Murray, Carl Nelson and Dylan Ragland, with direction by Jerry Rapier. The play grew out of the company's Slam, a 24-hour new play festival, and the reading will be followed by a discussion with the playwright.

Tickets are 10, available by calling 801-355-ARTS or visiting www.planbtheatre.org.

The staged reading is at 2 and 5:30 p.m. July 15 at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center's Studio Theatre, 138 W.

Southern classic: Carson McCullers' rarely produced family drama, "The Member of the Wedding," will play through Aug. 4 as part of Logan's Old Lyric Repertory Company's summer season. The show is directed by Terence Goodman, an actor, director and newly-appointed artistic director at Park City's Egyptian Theatre.

The poignant American classic, originally a 1946 novel, was adapted into a play in 1951. It's the story of a young Southern girl who experiences growing pains on the occasion of her older brother's wedding. "It is the combination of that personal awakening, oddly positioned against the backdrop of racial tension in this particular period of Southern bigotry and hatred, that gives this play an important social significance," Goodman says.

"It's one of those rare plays that actually says something and gives an acute perspective of where we have been, what we have been and where we have to come to. This is the kind of play that needs to be done and needs to be seen. You don't get this in summer stock.

" The play is difficult to cast because of the ages of the characters, according to Goodman, who remembers seeing the original stage production as a young boy. "The Member of the Wedding" will be performed at 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, July 18, 20, 26 and Aug. matinee on Aug. Other shows in the season are "Cash on Delivery," "The Spitfire Grill" and "Picnic," and all play at the Caine Lyric Theatre, 28 W.

Tickets are 18 ( 12- 15 students/seniors), available by calling 435-752-1500. Dramatic history: "10 Perfect," a new one-man show about the only known survivor of a lynching in U.S.

history, will be performed at Logan's Caine Lyric Theatre as a special event that's part of the Old Lyric Repertory Company summer stock season. The show, which contains adult language and content, will be performed by Patrick Sims, a visiting director at Utah State University's Old Lyric Repertory Company and an assistant professor of theater at University of Wisconsin-Madison. The fictional work is about a black boy and a white boy, raised in Northern Klu Klux Klan territory, whose childhood friendship is ripped apart in August 1938.

"10 Perfect" was inspired by the life of James Cameron, a lynching survivor Sims met in 1998. The work was first read in 2006 at the Madison Repertory Theatre, and later staged as a dramatic work at the National Conference of Race and Ethnicity in San Francisco. "I am interested to discover how a community that is rooted in faith responds to something based in harsh reality," says Sims, whose work combines storytelling and political commentary, influenced by African-American playwrights such as August Wilson and Suzan-Lori Parks.

The show will be performed Monday and July 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Caine Lyric Theatre, 28 W.

Tickets are 5 (USU students free with ID), available by calling 435-752-1500. "Little Shop" goes high school: The Tuacahn Summer Theatre Institute opens a new production of "Little Shop of Horrors," the popular 1960s-era "mock and roll" comedy, featuring high-school performers from throughout Utah. The beloved musical tells the story of Seymour, a floral assistant in a Skid Row shop who finds an exotic, blood-eating plant that he names Audrey II after a girl he has a crush on.

The musical debuted in an off-Broadway theater in 1982, and in 1986 was transformed into a movie starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene and Steve Martin. After a three-week rehearsal period, the Summer Theatre Institute mounts a full musical, for a run that lasts five weeks at Tuacahn's indoor Hafen Theatre. The show is directed by Jan Shelton, with choreography by Courtney Pew, sets by designer Bradley Shelton and musical direction by Laura Lee Graf, the choral and music director at Tuacahn High School.

The technical crew is led by Russ Saxton. The show opens Wednesday and plays through Aug. 4, with curtain at 7:30 p.

m. Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and 3 p.m.

matinee shows on Fridays and Saturdays. The theater is at 1100 Tuacahn Drive, Ivins. Tickets, 12.

50, are available by calling 435-652-3300 or 800-746-9882, or visiting www.tuacahn.org.

High school musical, part 1: "Bye Bye Birdie," the original teen musical, will open at Rodgers Memorial Theatre on Friday, with the run continuing through Aug. The show, which debuted in 1969, is directed by Karen Whiting, with choreography by Susan Holland and musical direction by Maurie Tarbox. It's the story of what happens when rock star Conrad Birdie is drafted, and his scheming manager launches a contest to select a small-town girl to receive "One Last Kiss" from the singer.

Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday at the theater at 292 E.

Tickets are 13- 16 ( 9- 14 children/students/seniors), available by calling 801-298-1302. High school musical, part II: The Midvale Arts Council presents a local production of Disney's "High School Musical," which opens Friday and plays through July 21 nightly (except Sundays) on the outdoor stage. The show is a theater version of the national smash hit cable movie, with a plot that's like a mashup of classic star-crossed young lover stories such as "Romeo and Juliet," "West Side Story" and "Grease.

" It's the story of what happens when Troy (Shawn Hauenstein), a high-school basketball star, falls in love with a girl from another clique, the brainy Gabriella (Alison Stringham), and the pair decide to audition for the school musical. It's directed by Candy Revels and Suzanne Walker, with choreography by Peggy Sherrat and musical direction by Nancy Parker. Tickets, 5 ( 3 children/seniors, 20 family pass), can be purchased at the gate.

Curtain is at 7:30 nightly (except Sundays) at the Midvale Outdoor Stage in the Park, 400 W. Domestic disturbances: "Kiss Me Kate," a classic Cole Porter musical comedy inspired by Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," will play at Orem's SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre through July 21. The plot of the 1948, multiple Tony Award-winning show revolves around a play within-a-play about an acting duo, the egotistical Fred Graham (David Hanson), who plays Petruchio, and his former wife, Lilli Vanessi (Rosanna Ungerman), who is cast as Katharine.

The battle of the sexes that ensues threatens to close the show, except for threats from a pair of gangsters trying to collect on a gambling debt from the show's Lucentio (Brad McOmber). "I am crazy about this show," says director Chris Clark, who teaches acting at Utah Valley State University. "If people have seen 'Kiss Me Kate' before, I invite them to see how we have energized a show that will look beautiful, be funny and be an example of making the old new.

If they haven't seen the play, I ask them to consider having a great time where they will see a little Shakespeare and hear a little jazz." The show plays at 8 p.m.

nightly (except Sundays and Wednesdays) at 699 S. Tickets are 10 ( 8 children/students/seniors) and available at the gate, 801-225-ARTS or www.scera.

org. Without a script: "The Neutrino Project," a 30-minute improvised film shot, edited and screened in front of an audience - without a script - will make its Utah debut this weekend. Promoters describe the event as a "bold urban experiment," which originated in the improvised cage matches of New York City's Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

Since then, local Neutrino casts have popped up across the country at major improv festivals. This will be the first such project in Utah, and will feature performers from the University of Utah, as well as local and national improv professionals, all directed by Fuzzy Gerdes, founder of the Neutrino Project: Chicago. Assisting Gerdes will be Salt Lake City's JoKyR and Jesster, a touring improv group.

The event is at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the University of Utah's Union Theatre, 200 S.

Central Campus Drive, Salt Lake City, and will also include performances by The Thrillionaires and Gerde's infamous "The Sickest F***in' Stories I Ever Heard." Donations are requested instead of a set admission fee. For more information, visit The Slapstick Association Web site at www.

myspace.com/theslapstickassociation.