Sept. 20, 2009
MU Theatre Slates Diverse 2009-10 Season
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Entertainment Editor
Huntington, WV (HNN) – Marshall University Theatre’s 2009-2010 season kicks off its season with “Waiting for Lefty,” a stand up and be counted production that explores various political ideologies within seven vignettes composed around a possible strike by New York City taxi drivers in the 1930s.
As the cabbies walk-out remains on the table, the scenes switch to a meeting of an industrialist and a lab assistant. The boss wants him to be a ‘spy’ to watch a chemist who is making ready for the upcoming war by designing chemical weapons. In another scene, a young woman Florence tells her brother Irv that she wants something out of life. Irv criticizes her for dating a taxi driver, whom she deeply loves. When the couple meet that night, the driver Sid, senses a change of heart. In yet another scene a doctor scheduled to do surgery in a charity ward is upset that he is replaced by the incompetent son of a senator. Actually, the charity ward is closing and the doctor is losing his job due to his Jewish ethnicity.
Offered October 14-17 at 8 p.m. in The Playhouse at Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center, “Lefty” was widely performed in 1935 and widely banned for its themes. Staged by the Group Theatre founded by Lee Strasberg, Cheryl Crawford, and Harold Clurman, the producers saw theatre as more than entertainment or serious examination of issues, but proved in a fragmented society wounded individuals can be brought together through theatre. It’s a timely challenge to make theatre breathe energy, life and new hope into all.
The intimate love story, “Almost, Maine,” runs November 18-21 at 8 p.m. in the Francis-Booth Experimental Theatre. Set on a moonless night in deep winter, residents of Almost, Maine, find their hearts bruised and broken as they fall in and out of love. However, ache coincides with love.
Almost, Maine will showcase the talents of student directors and designers in the Francis-Booth Experimental Theatre.
For the holiday season, the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” runs Dec. 10-11 in the Playhouse.
As the first production of a new decade, the theatre department takes us to post-WW II Washington , D.C. for the classic, “Born Yesterday.” Which debuted at the Lyceum Theatre in 1946. Made into a movie in 1950, the George Cukor film had Judy Holliday reprising the role of abused woman, Billie Dawn, whom she created on the stage. (It was remade in 1993 with Melanie Griffith as Billie.) Sharing a premise found in “My Fair Lady,” a Washington lobbyist finds a reporter to teach his ex-showgirl bimbo social graces.
The play runs February 24-27, 2010.
On March 27, Jesyn’s Dance Gallery performs an evening of modern dance at 7:30 p.m.
Finally, the season wraps with “Our Country’s Good,” which is based on the arrival of men, women and children arriving in bondage to settle Australia. At the makeshift penal colony, a lieutenant suggests that they produce a play for a morale booster.
For more details on the season, visit: http://www.marshall.edu/cofa/theatre/news.html
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MU Theatre Slates Diverse 2009-10 Season
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Entertainment Editor
Huntington, WV (HNN) – Marshall University Theatre’s 2009-2010 season kicks off its season with “Waiting for Lefty,” a stand up and be counted production that explores various political ideologies within seven vignettes composed around a possible strike by New York City taxi drivers in the 1930s.
As the cabbies walk-out remains on the table, the scenes switch to a meeting of an industrialist and a lab assistant. The boss wants him to be a ‘spy’ to watch a chemist who is making ready for the upcoming war by designing chemical weapons. In another scene, a young woman Florence tells her brother Irv that she wants something out of life. Irv criticizes her for dating a taxi driver, whom she deeply loves. When the couple meet that night, the driver Sid, senses a change of heart. In yet another scene a doctor scheduled to do surgery in a charity ward is upset that he is replaced by the incompetent son of a senator. Actually, the charity ward is closing and the doctor is losing his job due to his Jewish ethnicity.
Offered October 14-17 at 8 p.m. in The Playhouse at Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center, “Lefty” was widely performed in 1935 and widely banned for its themes. Staged by the Group Theatre founded by Lee Strasberg, Cheryl Crawford, and Harold Clurman, the producers saw theatre as more than entertainment or serious examination of issues, but proved in a fragmented society wounded individuals can be brought together through theatre. It’s a timely challenge to make theatre breathe energy, life and new hope into all.
The intimate love story, “Almost, Maine,” runs November 18-21 at 8 p.m. in the Francis-Booth Experimental Theatre. Set on a moonless night in deep winter, residents of Almost, Maine, find their hearts bruised and broken as they fall in and out of love. However, ache coincides with love.
Almost, Maine will showcase the talents of student directors and designers in the Francis-Booth Experimental Theatre.
For the holiday season, the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” runs Dec. 10-11 in the Playhouse.
As the first production of a new decade, the theatre department takes us to post-WW II Washington , D.C. for the classic, “Born Yesterday.” Which debuted at the Lyceum Theatre in 1946. Made into a movie in 1950, the George Cukor film had Judy Holliday reprising the role of abused woman, Billie Dawn, whom she created on the stage. (It was remade in 1993 with Melanie Griffith as Billie.) Sharing a premise found in “My Fair Lady,” a Washington lobbyist finds a reporter to teach his ex-showgirl bimbo social graces.
The play runs February 24-27, 2010.
On March 27, Jesyn’s Dance Gallery performs an evening of modern dance at 7:30 p.m.
Finally, the season wraps with “Our Country’s Good,” which is based on the arrival of men, women and children arriving in bondage to settle Australia. At the makeshift penal colony, a lieutenant suggests that they produce a play for a morale booster.
For more details on the season, visit: http://www.marshall.edu/cofa/theatre/news.html
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