Cedarville University Theatre - 2004-2005 Season
Main Stage Productions
The power of the storyteller is the subject of our 2004-2005 season. We open with Neil Simon's Broadway Bound which tells the story of two brothers aspiring to be comedic storytellers. In our winter production, the inhabitants of Spoon River become living tombstones, telling the stories of their victories and failures while still on earth. Our final production is the story of kings, queens and knights who live in a place "for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot." Thank you for sharing in our dramatic 'stories' this year. These stories reveal that the quality of life, even when facing great obstacles, is in the pen of the author. As we write our own stories, we must face the challenges, learn from mistakes and victories alike, and listen carefully to the other stories around us. In so doing, may we write our stories well.
Broadway Bound
by Neil Simon
Directed by Rebecca Baker
Performance Dates: October 1-2, 7-9 2004
Neil Simon's popular comedy Broadway Bound opens our season! The story poignantly blends humor and tenderness in its portrayal of American family life in 1949.
Eugene and his older brother Stanley are trying to break into the world of professional comedy writing while coping with the breakup of their parents' marriage. Their efforts to come up with material for a comedy sketch sparkle with hilarity. When the show is broadcast on the radio for the first time, the family is upset to hear what they think is a comic rendition of their trials. Reviewed by the N.Y. Times as containing "some of the author's most accomplished writing," Broadway Bound is an honest look at the pain and joy of family relationships. You'll laugh. You just might cry.
Performances will be 8 p.m. nightly with additional 2 p.m. performance on Homecoming Saturday, Oct. 2 and Oct. 9.
Production Photos
Spoon River Anthology
by Edgar Lee Masters
Directed by Mischelle McIntosh
Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters, is an extraordinary gallery of saints and rogues, a series of poetic epitaphs by former inhabitants (both real and imagined) of Spoon River. The story is set in a small Midwestern town near Lewistown and Petersburg, Illinois, where Masters spent much of his boyhood. This is a proud town with a central square, numerous churches, lofty opera house, drug store, general store, wagon works and canning factory - the kind of town that America was built on.
Everyone in the cast is "sleeping on the hill," and from their graves they speak to the living, confessing the real meaning and motivations of their lives. These eternal dead reveal the secret steps that caused them to fall or raised them to great triumphs.
Sometimes their words are confessions - sometimes self-justifications. Some are simple explanations of a life while others offer sage advice to those who still live.
In the early 1960s, Charles Aidman adapted Masters' Spoon River Anthology poetry for the stage. The play is rich with poignant vignettes ranging from descriptions of lovers, preachers and teachers to the humorous chronicle of the poor mixed-up man who ended up in the wrong cemetery. Through moving musical interludes and beautiful prose and poetry, we are introduced to the ghosts whose secrets now transcend the grave and greatly enrich the lives of those who will listen. Masters' original Spoon River Anthology first appeared in 1915 and still survives today as an American epic - the epic of the small middle American town.
Performance Dates: January 27-29, February 3-5, 2005
Performances will be nightly at 8:00 p.m. with an additional matinee on Saturday, February 5th at 2:00 p.m.
Production Photos
Camelot
by Lerner and Lowe
Directed by David Robey
Performance Dates: March 31-April 2, 7-9 2005
One of Broadway's most beloved and enduring American musicals, Camelot, concludes our theatre season. The ancient story of King Arthur, Lady Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot is woven through the legend of Camelot. Beginning with a delightfully nervous bride and groom, Camelot carries the audience from great joy to great sadness. While this romance was made a classic by Alfred Lord Tennyson in the 19th century, it took the talent of "The Once and Future King" author T.H. White and the creativity of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe to make it unforgettable. The love, courage, betrayal and despair of a king, queen, and heroic knight make this a beautiful and haunting theatre experience. Songs like, "I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight," "How To Handle a Woman," "If Ever I Would Leave You," and "Camelot" have become central to the repertoire of the American musical theatre tradition. While Camelot may be just a dream, perhaps we can follow the admonition of these lyrics:
"Don't let it be forgot,
that once there was a spot,
for one brief shining moment,
that was known as Camelot."
Performances are 8:00 p.m. nightly with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday, April 2, 2004.
Production Photos
Special Production
Master's Class with Brian Bedford
One of the most acclaimed classical actors of our time, Mr. Bedford will be appearing on campus in tandem with his production of The Lunatic, The Lover and the Poet at the Kuss Theatre in Springfield, Ohio. The New York Times writes, "Brian Bedford's one-man show, The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet, is both an actor's celebration of Shakespeare and an act of Shakespearean scholarship." Mr. Bedford studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where his classmates included Peter O'Toole, Albert Finney, and Alan Bates. He will be appearing in the Stevens Student Center Theatre at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16, 2005.
Student Productions
Another Antigone by A.R. Gurney
Student Director: Georgeanna Dale Smith
After many years of teaching the classics at a New England university, Henry Harper is not surprised by much - and particularly not by precocious students who want to rewrite his beloved Greek masterpieces to reflect current sociopolitical concerns. So when a gifted young Jewish student, Judy Miller, announces that she intends to submit an updated, anti-nuclear version of ANTIGONE, in place of the formal paper he has assigned to her, Henry is adamant in his refusal. Unfortunately, Judy is as stubborn as her professor, and when she resolves to defy him and produce her play on campus, tensions begin to mount. Judy lodges a complaint with the university grievance committee, and allegations of anti-Semitism arise. Soon it becomes evident that what is at issue for Henry is not just his academic integrity, but his very livelihood. He feels himself becoming Creon to Judy's Antigone, and in the final essence, even his willingness to give her a passing grade is insufficient to save him from the unhappy fate that inevitably follows when conscience, for whatever good reasons, yields to expediency.
| Student Production Schedule | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Event Date | Production | Director | Location |
October 28-30, 2004 |
Another Antigone |
Diane Merchant |
Alford Auditorium |
November 5, 2004 |
Bonnie Ladwig |
Matt Moore |
Alford Auditorium |
January 21, 2005 |
Crystal Missler |
David Robey |
Alford Auditorium |
February 18, 2005 |
Megan Koons |
David Robey |
Alford Auditorium |
February 25, 2005 |
Julianne Howe |
Diane Merchant |
Alford Auditorium |
April 3, 2005 |
Laura Mruk |
Rebecca Baker |
Alford Auditorium |