This March, the Canyon Theatre Guild offers two delightful plays where eccentric folk turn out to be wiser and more humane than their supposed sane-and-normal people around them.

The first, “The Curious Savage,” is a feel-good play filled with heart as it contrasts avarice with generosity.

Ethel Savage is a somewhat unconventional, but kind new widow whose husband left her a substantial fortune. She wants to establish a generous fund to help others realize their hopes and dreams, but her self-seeking adult step-children are intent on keeping her from doing that. They have her committed to a private sanatorium and there Mrs. Savage is left to work out how she will deal with her spiteful offspring. However, she gets to know the colorful social misfits there, who could benefit from the help she wants to provide.

Through their simple belief in the justice of her cause, they join forces and lead the self-seeking siblings on a merry and hilarious chase, ultimately driving them to their own destruction. The Curious Savage is a whimsical and genuinely entertaining comedy, and the audience is sure to leave with a smile on their face, knowing that the neglected virtues of kindness and affection have not been entirely lost. Performances are Fridays, March 24, April 7, 14, at 8 p.m.; Saturdays, March 25 and April 8 at 2 p.m.; Saturdays, April 1 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 2 at 2 p.m.

On the family stage, the Canyon Theatre Guild offers Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s Pulitzer Prize winning, “You Can’t Take It With You”. It’s a rare play that makes you beam from curtain to curtain, and this comedy about a zany, improbably happy family during the Great Depression accomplishes this feat. The philosophy pursued by three generations of the Sycamore family is ‘follow your bliss’ and miraculously, they all live under one roof, making sweet music together while ineptly pursuing passions that range from classical ballet to the manufacture of fireworks. This is the ménage into which the Sycamores relatively conventional daughter, Alice reluctantly introduces her beau, Tony Kirby, son of an uptight Wall Street bigwig and his socialite wife. When the Kirby’s arrive at chez Sycamore for dinner on the wrong night, the comic collision of the two families culminates with an invading squad of G-men and exploding fireworks.  So, can the lovers get together in spite of their family differences? Also, can the uptight, rich and snobbish Kirby’s learn to let go and enjoy life enough to allow a happy ending?

“You Can’t Take It With You” packs chaos, laughs and literal fireworks into a light farce centered around a family of eccentrics, yet offers heartfelt underlying messages for us all. Try not to wipe the smile off your face when it’s over. Performances are Friday, April 28 at 8 pm;  Saturdays, April 1 at 2 p.m.;  Saturdays, March 25, April 8, 15, 29 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 26, April 9 at 2 p.m.

For tickets and information for either show, call the CTG Box Office at 661-799-2707.