By By Lydia Grimes
features reporter
Take a little Marty Robbins, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a hilarious comedy, and Abba, and you have the makings for an entertaining upcoming season for the Brewton Council of the Arts.
There will be four performances and tickets are available now from any member of the Arts Council. Season tickets will make sure that you see all of the performances. Patron family tickets are $100 for the season; patron individual tickets are $50; Family tickets are $50; individual tickets are $25; and senior tickets (over 59) are $20.
The first of these performances which will be Jason Petty giving his rendition of Marty Robbins on Oct. 29. You may remember this is the same artist who brought Hank Williams to life in a previous performance.
His latest performance focuses on the life and music of Marty Robbins. He re-creates the western-themed sets similar to those used by Robbins in his 1960s  television show and will pay tribute not only to Robbins, but also to some of his heroes. Among Robbins influences were Gene Autry, The Sons of the Pioneers, and Hank Williams. Petty is an award winning actor-singer and has amazed crowds from Broadway to Nashville to Los Angeles and parts in between.
The second performance of the season will be fun for the whole family. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has been read in books and watched in movies for many years. It is based on the classic C.S. Lewis novel which will sweep the audience away to the magical land of Narnia, just inside the wardrobe, yet worlds away. This performance will be Nov. 15 and will interest both the young and the old.
The third performance is a comedy, Leading Ladies, and will be presented on Feb. 22, 2010. It features Brett Barret and Erin Dilly as English Shakespearean actors, Jack and Leo who find themselves so down on their luck that they are performing in the Moose Lodge in the Amish country of Pennsylvania.
When they discover that an old lady is about to die and leave her fortune to her long lost English nephews, they resolve to pass themselves off as the relatives and get the cash. But trouble looms when they discover the relatives are not nephews, but nieces. Hilarious adventure follows with all sorts of entanglements.
The fourth performance of the season is a musical group – ABBA Mania which will be presented on March 9, 2010. This is a rock musical which takes you back to the time of disco and one of the best pop bands in history. It features musicians and singers who will perform 21 of ABBA’s hits, with all the costume changes, choreography, a live band, back-up singers and big studio sound.
The in-school performances are part of the Brewton Council of the Arts and is presented through the Art for Youth Program. These performances will be for school children and there are no tickets sold for these performances.
The Arts for Youth program was developed by the Brewton Council of the Arts to ensure that every school age child has the opportunity to experience live theatre and professional performances by touring artists.
By bringing the artists to the children during their regular school day, each and every child gets to share in the experience.
This program reaches out to students from preschool through high school.
This year more than 750 preschool through first grade students will see production of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” by the Birmingham Children’s Theatre, and 2,000 elementary and middle school students will see “Play to Win, The Jackie Robinson Musical” These productions are provided at no cost to the schools.
Area middle schools receive financial help to take their students to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery.
Touring artists make visits to area high schools. The Brewton Council of the Arts believes that a love of the arts begins when young minds are given the opportunity to experience the arts.
This program is made possible by a generous grant from the Curtis Finlay Foundation and The Alabama State Council of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
For information on the programs or to order tickets, contact Susan Miller at 363-0176 or Edna Johnson at 867-2747.