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Printer-Friendly ModeCurtain ready to open on new theater season
August 31, 2009 —
The theatre department is busy preparing to open the curtain on this year’s performances and opportunities.
The year will start off with an encore performance of the summer comedy All the Great Books (Abridged).
In addition to this special performance, there is a contest for student organizations. Whatever student organization on campus has the most students attend the show will receive a monetary prize.
Before the first show is a program called Twenty-four Hour Theatre that takes place in October. There, participants are given a topic and have twenty-four hours to come up with a play, memorize lines, create blocking and set up sound. Participants must complete everything within 24 hours when the performance debuts for a public audience in the Black Box Theatre.
Theater sophomore Bear McBride said he sees the performance as “an extreme learning experience.”
A stage adaptation of Judith Viorist’s children’s book Alexander and the Terrible Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day will kick off the season’s schedule of new shows Saturday, Oct. 10.
In previous years, the department presented the children’s show prior to the University’s spring break The change comes in response to the snowy weather that often prevented busloads of kids from coming.
“We have students that come from a great distance,” said Janet Rubin, a professor of theatre. “We often lose schools due to snow days.”
The following show will shift in targeted audience as Erickson presents The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail by Jerome Lawrence.
“[This play] is a tried and true old standard from the thirties and forties of American theatre,” Erickson said.
The play focuses on Thoreau and how he refused to pay taxes because of the Mexican War. To make the performance more visually accessible, Erickson will use footage from different wars.
Department newcomer David Rzeszutek will take on directorial duties for the season’s third new show As Bees in Honey Drown by Douglas Carter Beane. The show will debut in late February and run through the first week of March.
The season will close in mid- April with One for the Pot by Ray Cooney and Tony Hilton. Erickson describes it as a “classic farce” and a “rare opportunity for the students to participate in.”