The Department of Theatre and Dance presents
2008 WINTER/SPRING THEATRE CALENDAR
Behind the Scenes Lunch and Discussion: St. Crispin’s Day
Director Alex Draper introduces the play and leads a discussion about the production along with members of the design staff and the cast to share insights on their work. Lunch is provided. Free
January 21 12:30pm
Hepburn Zoo Theatre
ST. CRISPIN’S DAY by Matt Pepper
Directed by Alex Draper
Senior work of Alex Schoen (costume design)
It is the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, the ‘Frenchies’are sleeping, and a handful of English soldiers, bored and somewhat dim, are trying to devise ways of escaping what they see as their inevitable doom. In a mingling of Shakespeare and Monty Python, Matt Pepper has concocted an anti-war comedy replete with whoring, looting, high jinks, low jinks, and even “a little touch of Harry in the Night.”
“Mr. Pepper’s script is an admirably ambitious stewpot of genres and tricks, and through it all he allows the audience to keep track of the plays underlying sardonic message.” NY Times
January 24 & 25 at 8pm, January 26 at 2pm & 8pm
Hepburn Zoo Theatre
Behind the Scenes Lunch and Discussion: Lysistrata
Director Claudio Medeiros introduces the play and leads a discussion about the production along with members of the design staff and the cast to share insights on their work. Lunch is provided. Free
April 8 12:30pm
Mahaney Center for the Arts, Seeler Studio Theatre
LYSISTRATA
Directed by Claudio Medeiros
Senior work of Amanda Mitchell (costume design)
The war between the ancient city-states of Athens and Sparta has no end in sight. Lysistrata has the solution: she rallies the women of Athens to a sex strike to force politicians and soldiers to come to their senses. Aristophanes’ greatest antiwar comedy mixes fantasy and gender politics with plenty of bawdy jokes, double entendres, and sexual innuendoes—all to create the revolutionary idea that a small group of women can change the course of a war.
April 9-12 at 8pm
Mahaney Center for the Arts, Seeler Studio Theatre
THE LIFEBLOOD by Glyn Maxwell
Senior work of Allison Corke and Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki (acting) and Franny Bohar (costume design)
Equal parts historical fact and fictional intrigue, this work by award-winning poet Glyn Maxwell brings to life the harrowing final days of Mary Stuart's imprisonment and ultimate execution. With layers of deception, admiration, respect--and even love--Maxwell illuminates a tragic connection between the Scottish queen and Sir Thomas Gorge, the man who represents her greatest hope and her cruelest betrayal.
April 10-12
Hepburn Zoo Theatre
THE MAN WHO TURNED INTO A STICK by Kobo Abe and THE RIVERS UNDER THE EARTH by Thornton Wilder
Senior work of Teddy Crecelius (directing)
Playwrights Kobo Abe and Thornton Wilder explore the underlying causes behind patterns of human behavior in the psychological landscapes of post-WWII Japan and America. Abe's play is fantastical but pointed critique of an entire society. Wilder's explores the unique outlooks of individual minds.
April 17 & 18 at 8pm, April 19 at 2pm & 8pm
Hepburn Zoo Theatre
FROZEN by Bryony Lavery
Senior work of Rishabh Kashyap and Stephanie Strohm (acting)
Frozen is not only a psychological drama, but a drama about psychology. Through the intersecting lives of three very different people, it plumbs the depths of the human mind in search of the point that separates biology from free will. For what are we responsible? For what should we be forgiven? As science unearths new truths, are the answers becoming clearer, or have we only further blurred the lines?
April 24-26
Hepburn Zoo Theatre
Behind the Scenes Lunch and Discussion: Jumpers
Cast and crew of JUMPERS will provide insights and some gymnastic feats as a preview of Stoppard's philosophical leapfrogging. Lunch is provided. Free
April 29 12:30pm
Wright Memorial Theatre
JUMPERS by Tom Stoppard
Directed by Cheryl Faraone
In a comedy that includes the moon landings, a team of gymnastic philosophers, Zeno’s paradox, a detective who might have stepped from the pages of Agatha Christie (not to mention a hare called Thumper and a tortoise called Pat), Stoppard combines effervescent burlesque with moral urgency.
"I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting yourself. I'm the kind of person who embarks on an endless leapfrog down the great moral issues. I put a position, rebut it, refute it, refute the rebuttal, and rebut the refutation. Forever. Endlessly." — Tom Stoppard
from an interview with Mel Gussow in the New York Times , 26 April 1972. Sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance with support from Pathways to Flourishing: a Dialogue of Science, Religion and Politics
May 1 & 2 at 8pm, May 3 at 2pm & 8pm
Wright Memorial Theatre
Stay tuned for announcements of talks and play readings connected to JUMPERS.
RECKLESS by Craig Lucas
Senior work of Rachel Ann Cole (acting)
This outlandish and poignant dark comedy takes the lead character, Rachel, on an unpredictable journey, when one snowy Christmas Eve her husband takes out a contract on her life. The cast of seven actors portrays over twenty characters, all of whom have been a bit reckless with their lives.
May 8-10
Hepburn Zoo Theatre
Ticket Information:
Central Campus Box Office Hours:
Monday-Thursday 10am-4pm & 7pm-10pm
Friday 10am-4pm
Mahaney Center for the Arts Box Office Hours:
Monday through Friday, 10am – 4pm
802-443-MIDD (6433) http://go.middlebury.edu/tickets
Box office opens one hour prior to curtain at the respective theatre.
Tickets are valid until curtain time only.