The SRJC Theater Arts Department is preparing for an exciting season of productions with themes of prejudice and appearance, featuring racism, monsters and preppy college coeds. One play is also produced in cooperation with the Student Theatre Guild, an SRJC club.

The season opens Oct. 5 in Newman Auditorium with Alice Childress’ play “Trouble in Mind,” directed by John Shillington. Childress’ comedy-drama is about rehearsals for a progressive new Broadway play during the Civil Rights era and the prejudices the actors still faced in what was supposed to be a very liberal production.

“It’s a race play in a race play. It was a bit too edgy in the ‘50s, but it’s fi ne now,” Shillington said.

Opening mid-October, “Trust” is an empty-space production using minimal props and lighting in the intimate Student Activities Center in Bertolini Student Center. Produced as a cooperative eff ort between the Theater Arts Department and the Student Theatre Guild, “Trust” is recommended for mature audiences.

“Beauty and the Beast” opens in November as the season’s fall musical. Directed by Laura Downing- Lee the play is a theatrical adaptation of the Disney movie of the same name.

Downing-Lee said that the challenge with doing a play based on a movie is that the audience enters with a lot of expectations, but the cast has a few surprises in store.

Downing-Lee will also direct “A Few Good Men,” in the spring. The play inspired the movie of the same name and is a military drama set in Washington D.C.

“It is more timely today than when it was written in the 1980s. It deals with our civilization and what we ask of those who protect us,” Downing- Lee said.

The season closes with “Legally Blonde” directed by Leslie McCauley, a sharp contrast to its serious predecessor. Based on the movie starring Reese Witherspoon but with musical numbers, this fun and light-hearted musical is about a sorority girl who follows her former boyfriend to Harvard.

McCauley said, “It is about learning to love who you are, which really applies to college students.”

For more information on the Theater Arts department’s fall production please visit, www. santarosa.edu/theatrearts/