Theater

SMASH
October 7, 8, 9, 2004, at 8:00 pm
October 9, at 2:00pm
Tansill Theater
by Jeffrey Hatcher
An adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s novel An Unsocial Socialist
directed by Leah Lowe

tickets; students $4.00, general $6.00

Millionaire Sidney Trefusis abruptly renounces his newly wed bride in order to overthrow the British government and establish a Socialist state by infiltrating a young ladies' finishing school. Smash traces the unintended consequences of his action and wittily interrogates the volatility of political passions along with the more private passions of the human heart.

ANTIGONE
November18, 19, 20, 2004, at 8:00 pm
November 20, at 2:00 pm
Tansill Theater
Adapted by Lewis Galantiere
From the play by Jean Anouih
directed by Michael Lerner

tickets; students $4.00, general $6.00

Jean Anouillh's Antigone is a retelling of the classic tragedy of Oedipus' daughter who defies the laws of men in favor of her responsibility to a higher law. Antigone buries her fallen brother, though he has been declared an enemy of the state by her uncle, King Creon, and is therefore ineligible for any funereal rites. Creon is placed in the awkward position of having to uphold his edicts, though they result in the execution of his neice and his son's, (Haemon's), betrothed.

First produced in 1944 in occupied France, it is commonly thought that Anouillh used Antigone's resistance to Creon's unholy and indecent law as a symbol of France's resistance to the Vichy government brutally imposed by Adolph Hitler. Antigone knows that her small act of resistance represents the first tiny crack chiseled into the facade of Creon's hollow regime. Her small voice calls others to her cause so that, by the play's end, Creon's entire family (Eurydice, his wife, and Haemon, his son) are claimed as casualties. He is bereft and alone with only his fruitless, impotent laws and his blindly obedient army, who will follow him only until another transient ruler takes his place. True change can only occur when a leader speaks with the voice of the people and attends to laws dictated by basic human rights. Creon knows this and knows that his rule is candle-brief, while Antigone's sacrifice to human rights is timeless.

SWEET CHARITY
March 3, 4, 5, 6, 2005 at 8:00 pm
March 5 & 6 at 2:00pm
Tansill Theater
Book by Neil Simon
Music by Cy Coleman
Lyrics by Dorothy Fields
directed by Lawrence Thelen
tickets; students $6.00, general $10.00

RED DEMON
April 28, 29, 30, 2005 at 8:00 pm
April 30, @ 2:00 pm
Tansill Theater
by Hideki Noda
directed by Jeremy Make ’05
tickets; students $4.00, general $6.00

The arrival of a stranger on an isolated island drives the confused and fearful villagers into a frenzy. Unable to understand the creature, the villagers label it a demon and drive it from their community. An outcast of the villagers herself, a cynic named That Woman begins to fall for the beautiful qualities of this Red Demon and vows to save him from the ignorance running rampant on the island. A fast and physically motivated piece of theater, Red Demon follows the journey of the mysterious being, his loyal companion and her dim-witted brother, and an opportunistic lecher in this dark comedy about what it means to be a foreigner in an ominous land.