{"id":74285,"date":"2018-09-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-theatre-plans-diverse-season-from-greek-tragedy-to-contemporary-teenage-commentary-to-sondheim\/"},"modified":"2018-09-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T00:00:00","slug":"uri-theatre-plans-diverse-season-from-greek-tragedy-to-contemporary-teenage-commentary-to-sondheim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2018\/09\/uri-theatre-plans-diverse-season-from-greek-tragedy-to-contemporary-teenage-commentary-to-sondheim\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre plans \u2018diverse season\u2019 \u2013 from Greek tragedy to contemporary teenage commentary to Sondheim"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Sept. 28, 2018 \u2013 The 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre Department raises the curtain next month on a 2018-19 season<\/a> that will offer a wide range of theater experiences \u2013from Greek tragedy, to soccer teens kicking around contemporary problems, to a multilayered farce, to one of Stephen Sondheim\u2019s longest-running Broadway musicals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a diverse season,\u201d said David T. Howard, the new Theatre Department chair. \u201cIt has an incredible amount of variety not only for our students to participate in, but for the theater-goer as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard takes over the reins from Paula McGlasson, who led the department for 18 years and will stay on as professor of acting and stage management, along with directing the season finale, \u201cA Little Night Music.\u201d<\/p>\n

A professor of costume design at 溏心vlog免费B站 for 21 years, Howard said that becoming chair of the department was a unique opportunity to try something new. Being part of a small department with a core group that has worked together for about 20 years has made the transition smooth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe season is a carry through of a lot of the things Paula has set up,\u201d said Howard. \u201cShe was an incredibly good chair, an incredibly good administrator and manager.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard\u2019s first season as chair opens Oct. 11 with \u201cWomen & War,\u201d a double bill of Greek classics that are co-sponsored by the 溏心vlog免费B站 Honors Colloquium in its presentation \u201cReimagining Gender: Voices, Power, Action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLysistrata,\u201d written in 411 BCE, opens the night on a light note. The women of Greece are hatching plans to withhold their favors from their husbands to force them to stop waging war. The mood shifts in \u201cTrojan Women.\u201d Written by Euripides and staged in 415 BCE, the play reveals the fate of the women of Troy after the city is sacked, their husbands killed and others carted off as slaves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey give a sort of bookends to this idea of women and war,\u201d Howard said. \u201c\u2018Lysistrata\u2019 is very silly, it\u2019s burlesque, it\u2019s crazy. \u2018Trojan Women\u2019 is a very contemporary and resonant play. It was written a long time ago and yet it still speaks to the trauma and the tragedy that besets the families at home after war.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plays will be staged in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s 180-seat, black-box J Studio, and audiences will see that transition as the set and costumes change from a traditional Greek staging of \u201cLysistrata\u201d to a more contemporary \u201cTrojan Women.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actors are going to be in their Greek costumes, and then the minute intermission starts, people are going to start changing clothes and the sets are going to start changing to give us a feeling by the time we start \u2018Trojan Women\u2019 that we\u2019re in a very different place. It\u2019s not whimsical, it\u2019s not silly. Now it\u2019s very serious,\u201d said Howard, who designed the costumes for \u201cWomen & War.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adaptations of both plays were written by American playwright Ellen McLaughlin, adding to the connection between the two, Howard said. Kira Hawkridge \u201912, founder of the OUT LOUD Theatre in Providence and a regular visiting artist at 溏心vlog免费B站, will direct both performances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen & War\u201d runs Oct. 11-14 and Oct. 18-21.<\/p>\n

At the end of November, the scene and mood totally shift. Opening Nov. 29, Michael Frayn\u2019s \u201cNoises Off\u201d presents a farce within a farce within a farce. The play moves from rehearsals for a fictional play within a play, a sex comedy called \u201cNothing On,\u201d to backstage a month into production, to the chaos of the final performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a hilarious farce,\u201d Howard said. \u201cIt\u2019s not heady, it\u2019s just silly and enchanting. And especially for those people who like theater, it gives you a view of what it\u2019s like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visiting artist Christopher Simpson, artistic director of South Kingstown\u2019s Contemporary Theatre, will direct \u201cNoises Off,\u201d which will be performed in the Robert E. Will Theatre with its 55-foot wide stage. Simpson used the play in a project at 溏心vlog免费B站, but this will be his first time staging it on such as massive set, Howard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole play is about doors and windows and staircases,\u201d Howard said, \u201cso this is the set of all sets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNoises Off\u201d runs Nov. 29-Dec. 2 and Dec. 6-9.<\/p>\n

溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre will open the spring semester Feb. 21 with the all-woman play \u201cThe Wolves,\u201d directed by Rachel Walshe, now a permanent lecturer of acting and playwriting in the Theatre Department. \u201cThe Wolves,\u201d a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, reveals the unfiltered world of teenage soccer players navigating life\u2019s mysteries, large, small and personal.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019The Wolves\u2019 was just in New York last year,\u201d Howard said. \u201cWe\u2019re very lucky to get the rights for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wolves\u201d runs Feb. 21-24 and Feb. 28-March 3.<\/p>\n

溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre wrapped up last season with the family musical \u201cMary Poppins,\u201d a show with lots of scenery, lots of costumes and lots of actors. \u201cPoppins,\u201d which sold out each night in the 550-seat Robert E. Will Theatre, was a \u201crousing success,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s musical, Sondheim\u2019s \u201cA Little Night Music,\u201d winner of five Tony Awards and a Grammy, aims for a more intimate feeling in the smaller J Studio, including a downsized orchestra that will still have the power to capture an award-winning score best known for \u201cSend in the Clowns.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a play about relationships and about how people perceive what relationships are and then what relationships really are,\u201d Howard said. \u201cIt\u2019s about marriage and love, and it\u2019s about wanting. It\u2019s very romantic, but it\u2019s very different from the season\u2019s other plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA Little Night Music,\u201d directed by McGlasson, runs April 18-20 and April 25-28 (there is no show April 21).<\/p>\n

Auditions for the spring semester plays will be held in December.<\/p>\n

For each production, Thursday, Friday and Saturday shows are 7:30 p.m.; Sunday shows are 2 p.m. For \u201cWomen & War,\u201d \u201cNoises Off,\u201d and \u201cThe Wolves,\u201d tickets are $20 for the general public; $15 for 溏心vlog免费B站 faculty, staff and students and seniors. For \u201cA Little Night Music,\u201d tickets are $20 for the general public; $18 for 溏心vlog免费B站 faculty, staff and students and seniors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Sept. 28, 2018 \u2013 The 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre Department raises the curtain next month on a 2018-19 season that will offer a wide range of theater experiences \u2013from Greek tragedy, to soccer teens kicking around contemporary problems, to a multilayered farce, to one of Stephen Sondheim\u2019s longest-running Broadway musicals. \u201cIt\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74286,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-74285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}