2012-2013 Season Show List
Great Stories: Classical & Contemporary Masterpieces
Threepenny Opera
A provocative musical by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weil
Black Box Theatre Musical
Oct. 19, 20, 25, 26 & 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 19 at 10 a.m.; Oct. 28 at 2 p.m.
Audience Guide
Mack the Knife, London's villainous but irresistible criminal leaves a trail of broken hearts and bloody heads wherever he roams. Dashing thieves, saucy prostitutes, and scheming entrepreneurs fill Brecht's sharp satire of society's inequalities. An opera in name only, composer Kurt Weill created a biting score with the sounds of 1920s Berlin dance bands and cabaret. This outrageously funny, adult musical seems timely again, asking such questions as, “Who is the greater criminal: he who robs a bank or he who founds one?”
Contains some adult subject matter and language.
Dancing at Lughnasa
A heartwarming Irish memory play by Brian Friel
Black Box Theatre
Nov. 30, Dec. 1, 6, 7 & 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 2 at 2 p.m.; Nov. 30 & Dec. 7 at 10 a.m.
For more information from the design team,
please follow us on our Dancing at Lughnasa blog: http://dancingatparkside.blogspot.com/
This charming memory play, told from the point of view of the adult Michael Evans, recalls events from the County Donegal in 1936. That summer, when he was seven years old, Michael and the five Mundy sisters (his mother and aunts) welcome home their frail elder brother, who has returned from a life as missionary in Africa. Set in early August, around the festival of Lughnasa – in Celtic folklore, the festival of the first fruits, when the harvest is welcomed–the Mundy sisters reap a bitter sweet harvest. Teetering on the edge of financial insecurity, the sisters struggle to get by, find love and occasionally dance to the music on the “Marconi.”
Book of Days
Black Box Theatre
Mar. 8, 9, 14, 15 & 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Mar. 17 at 2 p.m.
Lanford Wilson, the author of Fifth of July, Talley's Folly and Burn This, is considered one of America's most esteemed contemporary playwrights. Book of Days now adds to Wilson's list of award-winning works, receiving the Best Play Award from the American Theater Critics Association. In the small town of Dublin, Missouri, there is a cheese plant, a fundamentalist church, a community theatre, a tornado… and a murder. Cast as St. Joan in the local play, Ruth goes on her own crusade for the truth. Both funny and tense, this whirlwind of a play depicts Midwest values coming face to face with greed, jealousy and lies.
[This production is taking the place of the previously advertised production, Columbinus.]
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
A romantic-comedy by William Shakespeare
Main Stage Theatre
May 4, 9, 10 & 11 at 7:30 p.m.
May 5 at 2 p.m.; May 10 at 10 a.m.
Audience Guide
One of Shakespeare's most beloved comedies follows the romantic adventures of Viola and her twin, both shipwrecked in the enchanted dukedom of Illyria. This time-honored story of cross-dressing, practical jokes, and mistaken identities alternates between the absurd and the heartfelt, all in the name of love. The story is one that Shakespeare's audiences have come to expect: a girl washes up on a beach, disguises herself as a boy, falls in love with a duke, and woos a lady on behalf of the Duke, who then naturally falls in love with the girl-disguised-as-boy. Join us for the fun, and find out “if music be the food of love!”
FreshINK Series
FREE Staged Readings of Today's Most Important New Plays! This special season features the original works of UW-P Students, Staff and alumni. Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 2:00 p.m.
As We Forgive
By UW-P English Professor, Patrick McGuire
Sept. 21, 22 & 23
in CART D132, Rehearsal Hall A
This challenging play by UW-P English Professor, Patrick McGuire, tells the story of a Catholic priest challenged
by shifting ideas and modern thinking, against his own beliefs and those of the church.
Voices from the Quilt
By UW-P Dean of Arts and Humanities, Dean Yohnk
Nov. 2, 3 & 4, Fine Arts Gallery
Inspired by and performed alongside a display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt at UW-Parkside, this piece is woven
from a collection of original "narratives", telling the stories of those being memorialized in the quilt.
Final Bow/Cupid, Stung by a Bee
By UW-P students Mike Zimmermann and Annie Walaszek
Two original one-acts written by UW-P students.
Feb. 22, 23 & 24 in CART D132, Rehearsal Hall A
One explores the struggles of a growing sketch comedy troupe,
while the other is a modern retelling of the story of Psyche and Cupid.
Mary Dolly Kyrie
By UW-P Alumnus Peter Komistra
Apr. 12, 13 & 14 in CART D132, Rehearsal Hall A
A mysterious exploration of shame and the unknown, by UW-P and School of the Art Institute of Chicago graduate,
Peter Komistra.
