Musical 'Oliver' on Yuma stage

Based on the Charles Dickens novel, "Oliver Twist," a musical will be presented by the Yuma Community Theater for three weekends at the Historic Yuma Theatre, 254 S. Main St., starting Friday.

Performances will be at 7 p.m. each Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday.

Cathy Abarno is directing the cast of 41 in the story of a young boy who was in an orphanage in London in the 1840s. His name was Oliver, and he had the audacity to ask for more food!

Robert S. Snyder, 11, a fifth-grader at the Yuma Lutheran School, is Oliver.

Oliver becomes acquainted with Fagin (Eric Farber), an entrepreneur of illegal sorts, and the Artful Dodger (Dominic Grizzi, a student at St. Francis of Assisi School).

Along Oliver's path to find happiness, he is helped by Nancy (Sarah Reyes), a woman involved with not-so-nice people, especially Bill Sykes (Bruce Kelly) who is a mean man in more ways than one.

In one of the roles, playing a pauper assistant, is Michelle Wheaton. From England, she said, "I have a natural English accent, but had to learn the cockney version. That's OK because my husband's accent is cockney, so it wasn't too difficult to adapt."

Tickets for the show are $15 for all ages. They may be purchased at the Yuma Art Center, 254 S. Main St., or at the box office one hour before curtain time.

Yuma Community Theater is a nonprofit organization to promote live theater. Ralph Gray is the board president.

For information, call 919-4876 or visit www.yumacommunitytheater.org.