New and old meet in Missouri Southern’s upcoming theatre production, Hansel and Gretel, as a director makes his debut with a tried and true classic.

Lyndall (Lyle) Burrow, assistant technical director and director of Hansel and Gretel, has worked for the most part behind the scenes coordinating lighting and sound. But for the new play Burrow chose the script and blocked scenes.

The story’s notoriety is the reason Burrow chose it for the traditionally less popular spring children’s show.

“I picked this show because it was a story everybody would know,” Burrow said. “It’s a classic story that ranks up there with Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. I was thinking that would hopefully draw a bigger crowd.”

The play is based on the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale where young brother and sister, Hansel and Gretel, enter the forbidden woods to pick strawberries against the counsel of their father. Their stepmother manipulates the children into disobeying their father by saying he won’t have anything to eat if they don’t pick him some strawberries. Her real motive is to get rid of them. Hansel and Gretel are caught and held prisoner by an evil witch who lives in the forest and intends to turn the children into gingerbread. The script differs slightly from the classic in that instead of Hansel and Gretel escaping on their own and crossing a lake with a swan, the children’s father comes to the rescue.

Burrow said even though the play is a classic, his version has new twists he thinks audiences will enjoy. The evil witch has two apprentices named Dizzy and Rasputin.

“They’re fun,” Burrow said. “Dizzy’s dumb with lots of giggles and laughs. Rasputin is the brains of the two who’s very logical about everything.”

Dizzy also has a flying broom with a head attached to it named Boo Boo that she treats like a human being. Throughout the play, Dizzy plays tag and holds conversations with Boo Boo.

The version of Hansel and Gretel Burrow chose to use contains humor that both children and adults will appreciate.

“It’s not just for kids; there’s adult funny stuff too,” he said.

Another reason Burrow chose the classic fairy tale was for the timeless moral it contained.

“The classic plays have some morals that are tried and true,” he said. “This one says you should always listen to your father and that if you disobey, bad things are going to happen. I think that if you’re 9 or 90, it doesn’t hurt you to hear these values again.”

The cast is small with eight people,and includes some familiar such as like Rachel Mastin, junior theatre major, as Hagatha the evil witch; Aaron Stockton, junior theatre major, as the father; and Abby Noose, senior theatre major, as Dizzy.

The play will be performed nine times by Sunday afternoon. The first seven performances are to area school children brought by bus. The remaining two shows are open to the public and begin at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Tickets are available at the box office for $1 for adults and $.50 for children under 13. Reservations can be made by calling 625-3190.