Tonight the Penn State Thespians will transform the barren stage of Schwab Auditorium into 1950s Brooklyn with their performance of West Side Story.

The Thespians will perform at 8 p.m. today through Saturday in Schwab.

The musical, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and music by Leonard Bernstein, is based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Maria and Tony are the star-crossed lovers who find themselves in conflict because of their affiliation with two rival gangs, the Puerto-Rican Sharks and the American Jets.

West Side Story made its Broadway debut in 1958. With memorable songs including "Tonight," "Maria," "I Feel Pretty" and "Somewhere," the show was nominated for Best Musical that year. Three years later, the musical inspired a film starring Natalie Wood, which won 10 Academy Awards.

Amanda Passanante (junior-math), who plays Maria, proposed the show for the Thespians because it is one of her all-time favorite musicals.

"It's just so emotional and so human, and it just covers issues that are still a problem today," she said. "The main themes are the power of hatred and racism ... and the power of love, too, to overcome."

Passanante also said the beautiful music and realistic characters add to the charm of the show.

First-time director Ryan Miller (senior-secondary education and English) said the Thespians' performance will stay true to the stage production more than the movie, which changed the order of the songs slightly. He said the Thespians are trying to stay very true to life in this performance.

"When you look on stage," he said, "a lot of what you see with the set and with the costumes should look almost like a photograph from the '50s. It's very realistic."

Another aspect of the show is the dance sequences, which choreographer Bridget Storm (senior-theatre) said show a large jazz and ballet influence.

"The choreography is as much a part of the story as the text is," she said. "It's another means of communication."

Storm has been dancing for 19 years and created her own original choreography for the performance, inspired by how the music was written.

"It is an amazingly difficult and challenging show, but it has been a very great experience overall, and I am very satisfied with the cast," she said.

One of the most difficult challenges facing the cast was the last-minute replacement of one of the leads.

Mike Lewis (freshman-musical theatre) found out only two weeks ago that he would be playing Tony after the original performer left for undisclosed reasons.

Lewis said the highly emotional scenes created a challenge because he has never had to deal with these situations in real life.

"Some of the emotions are really hard to relate to, so I try to substitute experiences in my life to bring about emotions I think would be expressed," he said.

Miller said he hopes that students will enjoy the show, despite the sad elements, and see it as more than a tragic love story.

"It's got overtones of everything," he said. "It's tragic, but I wouldn't say it's a tragedy. I would say it's very hopeful. Overall people will walk away from the show smiling."

Student tickets are $4.75 and adult tickets are $9 for each performance and are available through the Eisenhower Box Office.