Guest director Chris Boyd and the University of Oklahoma Summer Stage will present “The Bremen Town Musicians,” opening Wednesday, and Boyd said the musical now has a new timeliness.

The show is based on a Brothers Grimm fairy tale and was originally set in Germany, but this version is set in the Great Depression-era somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains.

“When it was written in about 1992, we thought we were writing about a historical time period, but little did we know what would happen,” Boyd said. “Now the story hits really close to home.”

Boyd is not only the guest director for “The Bremen Town Musicians,” but he also wrote the book for the show.

The show is a “fun-filled musical adventure,” Boyd said, aimed at children but parents and older people will also find it highly enjoyable and entertaining.

In the show, four older animals. Donkey, Cat, Dog and Rooster strive to become the town’s musicians.

“On simple levels, the story is about four animals,” Boyd said. “But there are also elements that speak to prejudice, the way we treat senior citizens and the human spirit and survival in times of [economic] depression.”

Boyd said he was introduced to theater at a very young age because both of his parents were involved in it. His father was an “all-around theater-man” while his mother was a dancer and choreographer, Boyd said.

“I was trained by them for the first 18 years of my life,” Boyd said.

He went on to receive a dance performance degree from Southern Methodist University, and danced and toured for about 10 years. But Boyd said that he “always kept a foot in the door for theater.”

While later living in Austin, Boyd co-founded the theatre company Second Youth.

“Our goal was to create original musical works for a family audience,” Boyd said. “We hoped that grandma, grandpa, parents and kids could all come away [from a performance] with a positive experience.”

This show marks the first time that Boyd, a New Yorker originally from Texas, has been to Oklahoma. He said that the cast of 13 students, graduates and community members is “a very talented group of people.”

Boyd has been in Norman for about three weeks.

“It’s an intense period, especially doing a musical,” he said of the short production time.

Boyd said although functioning as a guest director is a challenge, he also thinks that it is exciting, and the best part of the job is the storytelling.

“It’s fulfilling to explore new perspectives and give the audience a good time learning about them,” Boyd said.

Music and lyrics for the show were written by Allen Robertson.

“The music is fun and entertaining,” Boyd said. “There’s folk and bluegrass and a smattering of other musical styles as well.”

It is also catchy, Boyd added.

“Kids love it — they walk away singing the tunes,” he said.

“The Bremen Town Musicians” opens at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Weitzenhoffer Theatre. The show runs through July 11.