Department of Theater Studies Offers Diverse Spring Season
Durham, N.C. - Duke's Department of Theater Studies has planned a diverse and rich spring season for theater audiences. After a very successful 2005 in which Duke productions were cited on numerous regional "Best of Theater" lists and Duke theater faculty and students were noted for excellence for their directing, design and acting work, the department is confident its spring productions will also generate excitement and acclaim.
Professor Jody McAuliffe will direct her new adaptation and translation of Gogol's The Inspector General . She will call her adaptation The Special Prosecutor. Theater Studies alumnus Jim Findlay, now designer for the distinguished New York Wooster Group, will design the production. Though the original play was written in 1836, the story line of government corruption still powerfully resonates. The Special Prosecutor runs April 7-15 in Sheafer Theater.
"The play becomes more relevant every day as news of eavesdropping and shameless bribery and posing and manipulation continue to hit the papers," says McAuliffe. "This play proves there is nothing new under the sun, and Gogol's brilliance transcends time. His play is about humanity--not about a Russian town a long time ago. We're seeing the same things now because Gogol understood that the bad behavior of government officials is innate if humans are left to their own devices with no checks."
Vanessa Rodriguez (T'06) will direct Loyal Women by Northern Irish playwright Gary Mitchell. Set among the criminals and paramilitaries of today's Northern Ireland, Mitchell takes the audience behind the scenes and behind the politics to show how women live, and he examines how responsible they may be for their own repression and suffering. Rodriguez brings Loyal Women to Sheafer Theater February 9 for four performances.
Colin Crowe (T'06) will direct her own play, Joy, Delirious . Crowe's play is about a young woman, Joy Moore, who joins her family at home for the first Christmas without her mother. Crowe's play runs in 209 East Duke March 3 and 4.
Bridget Bailey (T'06) brings "Works by Ludmila Petrushevskaya" to the stage in 209 East Duke March 25 and 26. Bailey's one woman show of excerpts of the contemporary Russian writer's work exposes some of the fine writing that never received much attention during the Soviet and post-Soviet era.
Three other students are having their original works produced in this spring's New Works Festival (April 20-23 in Branson Theater). Eyes Like Fire Opals by Martin Zimmerman (T'07), It's Not Whether You Win or Lose by Tiffany Webber (T'06) and Parallel Play by Judd Schlossberg (T'08) make up the festival fare and will be produced, directed and acted by students.
A musical theater class in the spring will give culminating performances April 24 and 25 as well.
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