‘South Pacific’ brings Wright State, Dayton Performing Arts Alliance together in new collaboration

The curtain is about to rise on the first show in a new collaboration between Wright State University’s School of Fine and Performing Arts and the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance (DPAA). It’s a show marking its 75th anniversary, with a message that is as relevant today as it was when it opened.

Wright State acting and musical theatre faculty and students will perform with the Dayton Opera and the Dayton Philharmonic in “South Pacific” at the Schuster Center in downtown Dayton at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 22.

Tickets are available at daytonperformingarts.org or 937-228-3630. Student tickets are $10 with the promo code WSU10.

“This is such a wonderful opportunity for our students,” said Dan Zehringer, D.M.A., professor of music and chair of the School of Fine and Performing Arts.

The production’s leads are a combination of artists from Dayton Opera and current and former acting and musical theatre faculty and students from Wright State. The production is directed by Joe Deer, retired professor of musical theatre at Wright State.

The ensemble is made up of Dayton Opera artists and Wright State acting, musical theatre and music students. Additional support for the production is provided by Wright State’s theatre design and technology faculty and staff.

The genesis of the collaboration was a special joint performance at the Schuster Center by Wright State and the Dayton Philharmonic in 2023 to celebrate the life of Stephen Sondheim. That went so well that plans progressed to have regular programs together.

“South Pacific” is the first in the new collaboration.

“I hope this cycles through all of the arts organizations – a ballet, a symphony, the opera, and hopefully some theatrical involvement,” said Marya Spring Cordes, associate chair of the school, professor of acting and musical theatre and artistic director of Wright State Theatre.

The goal is to have a collaborative performance every other year. “Once this project wraps, we’ll start brainstorming what the next one will be,” she said.

Cordes said the project will broaden students’ experiences.

“We’re a small city with a wildly thriving and varied arts community,” she said. “It makes sense for our students to work with those in the industry and in the Dayton arts family.”

“The more environments we can familiarize our students with, the better prepared they’ll be,” Cordes said. “We’re grooming the next generation of artists.”

Zehringer said as part of the collaboration Dayton Performing Arts Alliance artists will work with the School of Fine and Performing Arts on campus or provide master classes for Wright State students.

“This is a deep, rooted collaborative relationship to provide profound opportunities for our students to work with professionals in the field and to gain professional performance experience,” he said.

The collaboration’s effects have long-range potential. Zehringer said the opportunities available may “manifest themselves in more students being aware of all of our programs in the School of Fine and Performing Arts and provide another reason to become a Raider.”

“South Pacific,” the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic musical, features such famous songs as “Some Enchanted Evening,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair” and “Bali Ha’i.”

The music is about an American nurse on a South Pacific island in World War II who falls in love with a French plantation owner but struggles to accept his mixed-race children and about a Marine who falls in love with an Asian woman and fears the social consequences if they marry.

“‘South Pacific’ is an important story to be told,” Cordes said. “At the heart of it, it’s about personal bias and how we have to learn how to overcome personal biases and peoples’ differences.”

The hope is that the audience and students working on the production reflect on the message and find positive ways to navigate life today.