The Williams Baptist University Theatre Department will close the 2022-23 season with its production of  Clark Gesner’s “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” The classic play will be staged April 13-14 in WBU’s Startup Chapel.

Curtain time for the show is 7:30 each evening, while admission for the production is $5 for general admission and $3 for students and senior citizens. 

“In celebration of my upcoming 40th anniversary at WBU, I am going back and directing some of my previous productions,” said Melinda Williams, who is the director of the production. “We did this play in 2018.”

The play was originally scheduled to be produced in the Spring of 2020 but when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the production of the show was forced to cancel. 

The musical is based on the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz.  The play explores life questions as the gang struggles with homework, plays baseball, sings songs, swoons over their crushes and celebrates the joy of friendship.

“The production is based on characters many of us grew up with,” said Williams, who also serves as assistant professor of speech, drama and journalism at Williams. “And some we still identify with.”

Seniors appearing in the cast of the show include MeKency Shepard (Little Rock, Ark.), Tate Anderson (Walnut Ridge, Ark.), Josh Jaques (Maumelle, Ark.), Kaylen Doss (Paragould, Ark.), Rylee Dardar (Searcy, Ark.) and Maura Thomason (Sidney, Ark.)  Also in the cast are juniors Anna Ring (Paragould, Ark.) Rachel Jones (Cabot, Ark.) and sophomores Courtney Bettis (Lonoke, Ark.) and Kade Carter (Jonesboro, Ark.).

Also involved in the production is choreographer Savannah Garringer, a sophomore from Bono, Ark., and senior musical director Jared Veteto of Brookland. Musical accompaniment is provided by Tracy Henderson, the registrar at WBU.  

“I could not have done this show without those three,” Williams added. “They have been fantastic,” 

WBU is a private, Christian university in Walnut Ridge, Ark.