Trinity Christian College Department of Communication Arts’
Theatre Production Season 2007-2008:
“Fidelity”
The Department of Communication Arts at Trinity Christian College is pleased to announce the theatre production season for the 2007-2008 school year:
The theme of the mainstage plays produced on campus this year is “Fidelity.” These plays will explore what it means to be faithful, in a variety of contexts, as well as how fidelity is both perceived and embodied. We will examine how to make wise choices in commitments - To people. To a cause. To relationships. To tasks and duties, etc. It is our hope that we will be challenged to be individuals of wisdom and faithfulness.
Fall 2007: Student-Directed One-Act Plays:
Sorry, Wrong Number by Lucille Fletcher
&
Sure Thing by David Ives
(production dates November 1-3)
Fall 2007: The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare
(production dates November 8-10 & Nov 14-17)
Spring 2008: Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw
(production dates April 17-19 & April 23-26)
More detail on each production follows:
Fall 2007: Student-Directed One-Act Plays*
*= co-sponsored by the Dept. of Communication Arts, the Cultural Affairs Committee, and the Office of the Provost
The plays include:
Sorry, Wrong Number by Lucille Fletcher
&
Sure Thing by David Ives
Sorry, Wrong Number: This suspenseful play began as a popular radio play in the 1940s. The main character, Leona Stevenson, is bedridden, with nothing to connect her to the outside world but her telephone. Once, while experiencing what appears to be a crossed phone connection, she overhears two men plotting a murder. Leona calls various authorities, but to no avail. After making several calls, Leona begins to fear that she may not be simply an eavesdropping witness.
Sure Thing: This “postmodern” comedy was first produced in 1988, and has been a popular choice for student directors ever since. In this play, the audience members are witness to a seemingly endless string of choices made during the first chance meeting of a man and a woman at a local eatery. An offstage “bell” sounds frequently, giving the participants a “clean slate” whenever their choices might be the wrong ones for their intended audience.
Both short plays will be directed by TCC senior Rick Schuler, a Communication Arts/Film Studies major with a Theatre minor.
Running time is unknown, but will likely be approximately 45 minutes. There will be no intermission.
7:30pm. Fireside Room. $5 / general admission. $3 / students & senior citizens
Fall 2007: The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare
“A sad tale’s best for winter,” says Mamillius, the young son of King Leontes and Queen Hermione of Sicily. And, indeed, the first half of this play does feel like other Shakespearean tragedies. But it does not end there. The Winter’s Tale is the Shakespeare romance play “which plunges most deeply into tragedy before veering toward joy and redemption” (Leslie Dunton-Downer & Alan Riding, Essential Shakespeare Handbook, London: Dorling Kindersley, 2004, p. 419).
Written between 1610 and 1611, its first recorded performance was on May 15, 1611, at the Globe Theatre in London. This play is the source of one of Shakespeare’s most famous stage directions: “Exit, pursued by a bear.”
“Polixenes, King of Bohemia, is ending a 9-month visit to his childhood friend Leontes, who is now King of Sicily. Leontes begs him not to leave and urges Hermione, his pregnant queen, to convince Polixenes to change his mind. When she good-naturedly orders the Bohemian to stay another week, he readily agrees. Leontes is disturbed that Polixenes ignored his appeal, yet heeded Hermione’s words” (Dunton-Downer & Riding, 421).
Feeling betrayed, he orders Polixenes poisoned, but the trusted and wise servant Camillo sees the folly of this command. He flees with Polixenes to Bohemia. When Leontes discovers this, he has Hermione imprisoned. Hermione’s close friend Paulina comes to tell the king of the birth of his daughter, and rebukes the king for his actions in imprisoning his wife.
Leontes blames Paulina’s husband Antigonus for her outburst, and orders Antigonus to take the baby away to be abandoned, because he believes it to be Polixenes’. The baby survives and is discovered by an Old Shepherd and the shepherd’s son, Clown. After intermission, we are with them in their native Bohemia, where 16 years have passed and the baby, named Perdita, has grown into a young woman.
Perdita is in love with Florizel, who is Polixenes’ son. In Act 4, we see the happiness of their mutual affection, and we also meet Autolycus, a peddler and minstrel who features prominently in this act, which originally also records a sheep-shearing celebration.
It is unlikely that we will be shearing sheep in our production, but we will have fun staging this almost four hundred year old play.
Running time, with intermission, is unknown at this time, but will likely be approximately 2 ½ hours. The director is John S. Sebestyen, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts.
7:30pm. Fireside Room. $7 / general admission. $5 / students & senior citizens
Spring 2008:
Arms and the Man, by George Bernard Shaw, was first produced on April 21, 1894. It was published in 1898 as part of his volume entitled Plays Pleasant, which also includes the plays Candida, You Never Can Tell, and The Man of Destiny.
Arms and the Man was one of Shaw’s first commercial successes. In it, Shaw uses his characteristic satire to address false notions of love and war.
The play takes place during the 1885 war between Serbia and Bulgaria, and is set in the home of a Bulgarian family.
When the play opens, the audience sees Raina (rah-EE-na) in her bedroom. She is the daughter of a Bulgarian family, and is engaged to one of Bulgaria’s war heroes, Sergius Saranoff. As Sergius and Raina’s father, Petkoff, are fighting, a soldier from the other side escapes onto her balcony, explains that he is really a Swiss voluntary soldier, and begs to be hidden in order to avoid death. Raina hides him, although she thinks him somewhat cowardly, especially when he admits that, instead of ammunition, he carries chocolates.
When this play debuted, it is widely noted that Shaw was called onto the stage after the curtain call, where he received enthusiastic applause. Amidst the cheers, however, one audience member booed, to which Shaw replied: “My dear fellow, I quite agree with you, but what are we two against so many?”
Directed by Assistant Professor of Communication Arts John S. Sebestyen, the running time of Arms and the Man, with intermission, is unknown at this time, but will likely be approximately 2 ½ hours.
7:30pm. Fireside Room. $ 7 / general admission. $ 5 / students & senior citizens. |
