Sneak Peek: Penncrest's "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"

This weekend, will bring Charles Schultz's immortal Peanuts characters to life on stage with their interpretation of the 1967 musical comedy "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown."

Patrick Murphy, the director of the production, is also the guidance counselor at Media Elementary, and served as musical director at Penncrest for four years. This is Murphy's fifth directorial role, and he's still exuberant about it.

"I want to give the kids as good an experience in preparation, production and performance as we can. That's the most important thing to me," said Murphy during their technical rehearsal Monday night. "For this show specifically, the collaboration to make comedy good, trying different ways to give voices to different characters...it's been a lot of fun."

Working with Murphy are Jeanette Verdeur, serving as musical director for her fourth show, and Christa Consadene, choreographing her third show.

During the tech run-through, students acted out their parts dressed in their normal school clothes while the crew made tweaks to the set pieces, lighting, stage cues, the timing of the music during set changes, everything from top to bottom to make this weekend's production the best it can be.

When asked his thoughts on some of the highlights of the show, Murphy picked two musical numbers he felt were very strong. "'My Philosophy', sung by the character Sally in the second act. That's going to be one of our best. It's sung by Sally Race or Shea Gaffney, depending on which show you come to. And in the first act, 'Beethoven Day', sung by Alex Mercer—that's going to be a showstopper."

Showtimes are Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2 at 7 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, April 2 and 3 at 2 p.m. For tickets, call 610-627-6804. For complete details, click here.