With an all-student cast of 25, two young children and an orchestra made up of 12 students, South Pacific is one of Exeter's major productions of the year. The Academy’s Fisher Theater will be set to resemble a Quonset hut; musicians and ushers will be dressed in Navy attire. The show runs Friday December 8 at 7:30, Saturday December 9 at 7:30 and Sunday December 10 at 1:00.

South Pacific ranks among the most celebrated of Rodgers and Hammerstein's acclaimed musical masterpieces. It received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Award as the season’s best musical and nine Tony Awards including Best Musical, in 1950. First produced on Broadway in 1949, the issues of racism and diversity and war and loss remain particularly relevant today. One need only listen to the lyrics of “You’ve got to be Carefully Taught” to see that the show has not lost power over time.

The play is based on James Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of short stories Tales of the South Pacific. At the heart of South Pacific is the love story of a naive young Navy nurse and an older French plantation owner who meet on an American-occupied South Sea island. A young soldier and a beautiful native girl also fall in love. War eventually joins one couple and separates the other.

Free tickets are required and will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis only. Seating is limited. Contact the Fisher Theater Box Office at 603-777-3504 (x3504 on campus) or submit ticket requests to the theater post office box. For more information, contact the theater or see our "Exeterbill".