Liza and the Riddling Cave will be presented to the public at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5, at Pridemore Playhouse in Porterfield Hall on the Radford University campus.Written by John Urquhart, the play tells the story of a young Appalachian girl, Liza, who hasn’t spoken a word in her life, but has a remarkable talent for solving riddles. When Liza’s father goes missing in the mysterious caves of Ice Mountain, she knows it is her job to bring him home.

The play follows the adventures of Liza and her brother Jacob through the mountains to save their father.

In addition to the public performance, Director Deejay Gray, a senior theatre major, and his cast will present the play to approximately 4,500 school children starting Dec. 4 and running through the following week.

“We’ve been doing children’s theatre in this particular time slot for years and it’s very popular,” said School of Dance and Theatre Professor Wesley Young. “Many of our theatre majors have told me that the first play they saw was a children’s theatre performance here at RU.”

In all, the cast will perform Liza and the Riddling Cave eight times, giving the actors and dancers plenty of onstage experience. “It’s a great learning experience,” Gray said. “We do a show and turn around and do it again.”

Gray says that Liza and the Riddling Cave will be particularly popular with the school-age children because it offers plenty of visuals, music, and dancing.

Most of the production’s music is original, composed by Gray and RU junior theatre major Samantha Figueira. “She and I and a few others worked on the music for the show and we think it will add a different element to the production.”

Where there’s music, there usually is dancing, and Liza and the Riddling Cave has plenty of dancing. As Gray studied the play, he wondered how he could have Liza, who doesn’t speak, communicate with the play’s other characters. “Why not dance?” he said.

As part of his cast of about 15, Gray has a couple of dance students helping Liza to communicate. “The departments in the School of Theatre and Dance do a lot of collaborations,” Young said. “And those collaborations spawn more collaborative work which causes even more and more crossovers.”

Tickets for Liza and the Riddling Cave are on sale now at Porterfield Box Office. The box office is open noon – 6 p.m. Call 540.831.5289.