Tickets are on sale for Bluffton University's May Day-weekend production of Meredith Willson's Tony Award-winning musical classic, "The Music Man."

Dr. Melissa Friesen, an associate professor and chair of communication and theatre at Bluffton, will direct the show, to be staged May 3-5 in Founders Hall. Drs. Crystal Sellers and Jon C. Peterson, each an assistant professor of music, are music director and conductor, respectively.

Curtain time is 8 p.m. nightly; tickets, $13 for reserved seats and $5.50 for bleacher seats, are available online at http://tickets.bluffton.edu, or by contacting the box office at 419-358-3239.

"'The Music Man' celebrates the spark of creativity and imagination within each of us," Friesen says. "Although Harold Hill comes to River City to swindle the townspeople, the inspiration of a boys' band actually awakens delight and a sense of purpose within them."

The cast of 50 includes local children and community members as well as Bluffton students.

Among the student cast members are Spencer Genson, a sophomore from Millbury, Ohio, as Harold Hill; Meghan Sager, a sophomore from Ottawa, Ohio, as Marian Paroo; MaryRose Shotwell, a first-year student from Delta, Ohio, as Mrs. Paroo; Neil Macke, a first-year student from Ottawa, as Mayor Shinn; Megan Schadle, a senior from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, as Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn; and Zeke Tracy, a junior from Continental, Ohio, as Marcellus Washburn. Local children in the cast include Patrick Estell as Winthrop Paroo and Courtney McLaughlin as Amaryllis.

Mervin Schrock is technical director for the production, and the costume designer is Paula Unrau. Other participating students are stage managers Lydia Speicher of Marysville, Ohio, and Sam Griffith of Greensburg, Pa.