Volume 142, Issue #3
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| THEATRE DEPT. LAUNCHES FALL LINE-UP BY
JENNIFER LOPEZ
The City College theater department is hard at work getting ready to captivate and delight audiences as the Diego Rivera Theater presents three productions this fall. There will be something for everyone: a look at the women characters of famous playwright Henrik Ibsen; a hilarious musical with some unlikely subject matter; and works from talented up-and-coming student playwrights. The first play is "Urinetown," directed by David Parr with music and lyrics by Mark Hollmann. The Broadway production of “Urinetown” won three Tony Awards in 2002 and the play is described as a “hilarious tale of greed, corruption, love and revolution in a time when water is worth its weight in gold.” Imagine a Gotham-like city where a 20-year drought has caused a water shortage, requiring the government to ban the use of private toilets. One company holds a monopoly on this basic human need and charges admission to use public amenities- that is until a hero emerges and urges people to come together in rebellion. While the play is foremost a comedy, it is also a tale of human perseverance in the face of desperation and oppression. As the backdrop to it all, humor brings everything into perspective. The theater department calls the play “One of the funniest musicals in recent history.” Urinetown comes to the Diego Rivera Theater from September 29 to October 8. Later in the fall, an original production comes to City College with “Women of Ibsen.” It was conceived by Instructor Susan Jackson and Ann Thomas after having read some 25 plays written by Ibsen. Considered one of the most influential playwrights of all time, Ibsen has been called “the father of modern drama.” While reading the plays the two decided to create a piece that showed Ibsen’s use of strong women. Jackson and Thomas chose to extract certain scenes from several of Ibsen’s plays and interspersed them together to make something new. "Women of Ibsen" goes back and forth between two of Ibsen’s most well-know plays, "A Doll’s House" and "Wild Duck." The chosen scenes were not put in chronological order but combined together to convey the strong dramatic and moral themes that Ibsen wrote about and that revolutionized the content of dramas. “When people reveal a truth, there is some sort of sacrifice that occurs … self sacrifice, death, loss, and also revelation,” Jackson said. “Truth has a cost. It’s heavy, passionate stuff.” The only changes to Ibsen’s plays was a surprise alternate ending to one of his most famous works. "Women of Ibsen" will have a “zillion characters,” Jackson said. “It will be interesting to see how we cast it all.” Finally, the Annual Festival of American Playwrights of Color returns, giving students the power to uncover their own voice. City College Instructor Ann Fajilan created the festival to give opportunity to people of color who were tired of playing the typical roles assigned to their race or gender. Theater students could break out of stereo-typed roles and explore a more balanced portrayal of life by writing and performing their own material. For more information on auditions, show dates and times call (415) 239–310 e-mail: a_e@theguardsman.com
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Left to right: Danna Friedberg, Tracy Rice and Christopher Blaise rehearse a musical number from “Urinetown,” which won a Tony award in 2002 for best original score.