The children’s play, Excalibur, The Story of Young King Arthur, by Michele L. Vacca, was performed seven times last week.

Southern Theatre and the Show-Me Celebration Company put on the play.

Bryan Whyte, senior speech and theater education major, directed the play.

There were five performances during the week of Nov. 28 for the local school children who were bused in for field trips.

There were also performances on Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. for the public. Admission was $.50 for children and $1 for adults. The profits from the play will be given to the theatre department scholarship funds for theatre majors.

“I learned that we were going to perform Excalibur about a year ago,” Whyte said. “We’ve been doing the little things to get ready for the past year. We started rehearsing about six weeks ago, but we’ve been having meetings for the past five months to set costume and makeup choices.”

The play tells the story of young King Arthur, and how he became king. It took place in the fifth century A.D., in ancient Britain. Merlin (Zack Self) saved Arthur (Michael Runion) by giving him to Sir Ector (Norman Carr) to keep as his own son in order to save his life from Morgan Le Fay (Melissa Rutledge) and her evil helpers, Dragonfly and Katydidd (Bethanie Lansaw and Valerie German). Arthur grew up with his brother and sister Kaye and Elaine (Todd Manley and Rachel Roberts).

Their family went to a tournament, where Arthur pulled out Excalibur from a stone and the Archbishop of Canterbury (Gavin Gardner) pronounced him King Arthur of Britain.

“This Excalibur was more for kids,” Whyte said. “It’s a little take off of the Walt Disney’s version of The Sword and the Stone.”

“Although the play may have been for little kids, I still enjoyed it,” said Holly Robertson, freshman undeclared major.

Upcoming Theatre Productions are The Water Children, Jan. 24-28 at 7:30 p.m., A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, March 8-11 at 7:30 p.m., and Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? April 22-23 at 2:30 p.m.