Fire Hall Theatre presents "The Bad Seed" What do you do when you know your child is, well, just wrong? Meet Little Rhoda Penmark, the well-behaved daughter of Colonel and Christine Penmark. On the surface she is sweet, charming, full of old-fashioned graces, loved by her parents, admired by all her elders. But Rhoda’s mother has an uneasy feeling about her. When one of Rhoda’s schoolmates is mysteriously drowned at a picnic, Mrs. Penmark is alarmed. For the boy who was drowned was the one who had won the penmanship medal that Rhoda felt she deserved. "The Bad Seed" was a successful and long-running (334 performances) Broadway play by UND alum Maxwell Anderson adapted from the novel of that name by William March, and was in turn adapted by John Lee Mahin into an Academy Award-nominated film of the same name directed by Mervyn Leroy. Staged by Reginald Denham, it opened Dec. 8, 1954, and starred Nancy Kelly (who won the 1955 Tony Award for Best Actress in the role as the mother), Patty McCormack, Eileen Heckart and Henry Jones, all of whom reprised their roles in the 1956 film and the first three of whom received Oscar nominations for their performances. Interest in the play was strong enough that Life magazine ran an extensive story on the production a week before it opened. The play was shortlisted for the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, but Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. pressured the prize jury into presenting it to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof instead. Directed by Benjamin Klipfel and starring Claire Thompson, Jenny Morris, Jeff Weatherly, Santos Casarez, Mare Thompson, Ralph Swendseid, Joe Bussy, Nicole Quam and Megan Lonski. Production runs Nov. 5-7, 12-14, 19-21 at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday Matinees Nov. 8 and 15 at 2 p.m. Productions are at the Fire Hall Theatre. Tickets: $15/12 | 777-4090 -- Benjamin Klipfel, Executive Director, Greater Grand Forks Community Theatre, info@ggfct.com, 777-4090