Stepping Out

Peninsula Youth Theatre is scheduled to perform “Aladdin Jr.” Thursday through Sunday at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St.

The play brings the blockbuster Disney movie to life, featuring music from the Broadway musical “Aladdin.” When street rat Aladdin rubs a magic lamp, he has the opportunity to make all of his wishes come true. However, the clever villain Jafar threatens to steal his chance.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley launched its 50th season with “The Language Archive,” scheduled to run through Aug. 4 at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.

Julia Cho’s comedy is about a linguist fighting for the preservation of near-extinct languages as he struggles to maintain his relationships at home.

Courtesy of LAYT
The cast of Los Altos Youth Theatre’s “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” includes, clockwise from top, Peter Owens, Audrey Rechenmacher, Ash Prodromou, Elizabeth Wang, Rose Madsen and Nik Higginbottom.

Los Altos Youth Theatre’s summer musical production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” opened last weekend and is slated to run through Aug. 4 at Bus Barn Theater, 97 Hillview Ave.

The comedy tells the story of school-aged overachievers – including their hopes, dreams and angst as they compete for a slot in the National Spelling Bee.

David Allen/Special to the Town Crier
Cinderella (center, played by Christina Lea), who is dubbed Ella in Foothill Music Theatre’s production of “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” helps her stepsisters (Melissa Gialdini, left, and Gwyneth Forrester) as they prepare for the ball.

Cinderella sings “There’s nothing you won’t try, move a mountain, light the sky, make a wish come true” in the song “There’s Music in You,” written by songwriter Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II in the 1950s.

Milissa Carey, director of Foothill Music Theatre’s production of “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” said the song embodies the show’s themes of finding your own truth and making decisions for yourself.

Los Altos Youth Theatre’s summer musical production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is scheduled to open Friday and run through Aug. 4 at Bus Barn Theater, 97 Hillview Ave.

The comedy tells the story of school-aged overachievers – including their hopes, dreams and angst as they compete for a slot in the National Spelling Bee.

Kevin Berne/Special to the Town Crier
Linguist George (Jomar Tagatac) is so focused on preserving dying languages that he fails to communicate with his wife, Mary (Elena Wright), in “The Language Archive,” a comedy presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley today through Aug. 4 at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley marks the start of its 50th season with “The Language Archive,” scheduled to run today through Aug. 4 at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.

Written by award-winning playwright Julia Cho, “Language” is a comedy about a linguist fighting for the preservation of near-extinct languages as he struggles to maintain his relationships at home. The play received the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Women Playwrights.