Some people will go to any lengths to avoid having to make conversation with strangers. Charlie Baker, the lead character in Larry Shue's comedy "The Foreigner," is one such person.

A painfully shy, British proofreader, Charlie pretends to be the native of an exotic country who doesn't speak English so that he won't have to interact with other guests while staying at a rural Georgia fishing lodge. Instead of isolating him, Charlie's act draws people to him and enables him to get to know the other guests better than he'd like.

What results is a wildly comic interplay between Charlie's "Foreigner" and an odd range of characters from Betty - the struggling, widowed owner of the fishing lodge - to the Rev. David Marshall Lee - an evil bigot whose goal is to turn the lodge into a meeting place for the Ku Klux Klan.

Audiences here will have a chance to see for themselves what happens between Charlie and company when the University of Wisconsin-Parkside's Theatre Arts Department opens its 2008-09 season with a production of Shue's farce this weekend. "The Foreigner" starts Friday night in the Communication Arts Theatre and runs through Oct. 25, with Dean Yohnk directing.

What inspired the Theatre Arts Department to bring this comedy - which made its debut at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre in 1983 while Shue was in residency there - back to the stage?

"One reason is that we haven't done a contemporary American comedy in a long time," said Yohnk, who is also chairman of the Theatre Arts Department.

As an educational institution serving Racine and Kenosha counties, the university's theater department tries to bring a very balanced season to it's stage each year, he explained. And "The Foreigner" seemed like a good fit with the rest of this season's lineup, which also includes the journal-inspired story of a girl growing up in a lumber camp, a Shakespeare play, a modern theater classic by Chekhov, and a well-loved musical production.

"We are also doing this play because it is really funny," said Yohnk.

Laughter and more

As Shue's best known work, "The Foreigner" has been making people everywhere laugh for more than 20 years. While New York Times theater critic Frank Rich wasn't particularly impressed with the play's Off-Broadway debut in 1984, the proof of Shue's success with this comedy can be found in its massive audience appeal both in New York and around the country.

"The Foreigner" played 686 performances during its two-year Off-Broadway run, and the American Theatre Critics Association named it one of the best regional theatre plays for the 1983-84 season. Shue was in the process of writing a screenplay of "The Foreigner," which he was commissioned by Disney to do, when he was killed in plane crash in 1985 at the age of 39. His work, however, has lived on as "The Foreigner" has since been produced by hundreds of theaters world wide (another of his plays, "The Nerd," is also very popular).

And it isn't just the laughs that keeps people coming to see "The Foreigner." Underneath the humor, audiences can find a great story that addresses important issues such as prejudice and tolerance, says Yohnk.

"It makes strong points without beating the audience over the head with them," he said.

"You come away from it with a new perspective of seeing things through other people's eyes," said Karl Gfall, a sophomore theater arts major who is the understudy for the roles of Owen and Ellard. "Like the characters in the play, we are all foreigners in some sense."

Shue's characters are also a big part of what draws people to this play, said Robyn Schneider, a senior acting major who plays the role of Catherine in the UW-Parkside production. While some characters are simple, honest people, others are hiding their true selves behind superficial "masks," she said, and all of them may remind us of people we know in real life.

"They are very human in everything they do," Schneider said. "That's what makes this show so great."

That human element has kept Jon Finnegan on his toes as he explores the challenging role of Charlie.

Because Charlie has to spend a lot of time pretending he doesn't understand what is going on around him, his role requires "being in the moment" the entire time, Finnegan said.

"I just hope when people leave the show that they will be as tired as we are from laughing," he said.

The rest of the show's cast features Terrance Barrett as "Froggy," Felicia Dominquez as Betty, Dan Kroes as Ellard, Peter Mol as Rev. Lee, Aaron Verbrighe as Owen, and a full cast of understudies.

Show goes on

The remainder of the Theatre Arts Department Season includes:

* "Story of Opal," based on the journal of Opal Whiteley, directed by Gale Childs-Daly. Nov. 5-9 in the Augie Wegner Studio Theatre. A child protege, Opal recorded the events of her childhood while living in the lumber camps of Oregon at the turn of the 20th Century. This imaginative stage adaptation tells the story of this young girl with an "understanding heart."

* "The Winter's Tale," a magical romance by William Shakespeare, directed by Jamie Cheatham. Dec. 5-6 and 11-13 in the Augie Wegner Studio Theatre. "The Winter's Tale" follows a jealous king as he loses both his wife and child, after accusing his pregnant queen of infidelity.

* "The Seagull," a serious comedy by Anton Chekhov, directed by Lisa Kornetsky. Feb. 27-28 and March 5-7 in the Augie Wegner Studio Theatre. One of the great classics of modern theater, this play explores the role of the artist, the desire to create and find love, and the everyday business of living together in a world that seems on the brink of tremendous upheaval.

* "The Music Man," a classic American musical by Meredith Wilson, directed by Dean Yohnk. April 24-26 and 30, and May 1-2 in the Communication Arts Theatre. There's trouble in River City, according to Professor Harold Hill, a silver-tongued con artist who convinces the Iowa town that the way to steer its youth away from its trouble is to put them in a marching band. This family-oriented show features some of America's best-loved songs, from "Seventy Six Trombones" to "Gary, Indiana."

All shows include evening and matinee performances. A complete schedule is available online at http://www.uwp.edu/departments/theatre.arts

If You Go

WHAT: Larry Shue's "The Foreigner"

WHEN: Opens Friday and continues Oct. 18, 23, 24 and 25. Show time is 7:30 p.m. There will also be a 10 a.m. show on Oct. 24.

WHERE: Communication Arts Theater, at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, 900 Wood Road.

COST: Tickets are $16 ($12 seniors, $8 students). A general admission season pass can be purchased for $64 for all five Theatre Arts Department productions. Tickets can be purchased online at the UW-Parkside web site, by phone, or in person at the Communication Arts building box office from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

INFO: Go to http://www.uwp.edu/departments/theatre.arts or call (262) 595-2564.

FreshINK sets season

In addition to its main stage productions, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside's Theatre Arts Department is offering four works in its FreshINK play reading series this season. FreshINK productions, which focus on new plays, are performed at 7:30 p.m. in alternate spaces around campus and are free.

In its eighth year, FreshINK is designed to expose students and their audience to brand-new plays about topics that generate a great deal of discussion, said Dean Yohnk, chair of the Theatre Arts Department. This season it will feature:

* "Rabbit," an unnerving comedy by Nina Raine, Sept. 19-21 in the Student Center Cinema (the Student Center is the new student union on the UW-Parkside campus).

* "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," a bloody, brutal comedy by Martin McDonagh, Nov. 14-16 in the Student Center Cinema.

* "Nickel and Dimed," a provocative middle class drama by Joan Holden, Jan 30 - Feb. 1 in the Student Center Cinema.

* UW-Parkside Original New Play Festival, a collection of original short works by UW-Parkside playwrights, March 27-29 at the Augie Wegner Studio Theatre, in the Communication Arts building. For more information, go to http://www.uwp.edu/departments/theatre.arts