“When you have a chance to work on something that’s live and the audience is breathing the same air as the performers, it makes the work seem more immediate and more alive than if we were watching it through a screen or a filter or a box. I love that.”
Director Kenny Leon 2014 Tony Award recipient, “Best Direction of a Play” for A Raisin in the Sun
Welcome! We are very excited to begin our new Theatre South Carolina season! As the new coartistic directors, we are looking forward to a year of new beginnings filled with brand new, and returning, faculty and students. Fall is always an exciting time of year on campus as we welcome new students into our classrooms and into our lives as members of our theatre community. It is also a time of renewal and reunion as we welcome students back from a vast array of summer experiences. Many of our majors have traveled abroad, worked at summer theatre internships or simply caught up with family and friends, reading and sleep! This year’s season is a celebration of the spirit of youth! Our productions explore and reveal the vital determination and enduring optimism of young adults as they face their hopes and dreams with passion and courage. We are especially pleased to once again feature the undergraduate theatre majors in our first production of the season, Ajax in Iraq, a powerful drama that juxtaposes the centuries-old tale of Sophocles’ tragic hero, Ajax, with the shell-shocked journey of a modern-day female soldier fighting in Iraq. Shortly thereafter we will introduce our 2014 Class of MFA students in Our Town, Thornton Wilder’s enduring classic that opens our eyes to the beauty of everyday existence. The celebration continues in the Spring with Translations, Brian Friel’s tender and funny portrait of cultural divides and, finally, a rousing new adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ swachbuckler, The Three Musketeers. And that’s just the main stage season... There are many more journeys to inspire and entertain at the Lab Theatre and Center for Performance Experiment! We hope you will join us for each and every one of these powerful productions that promise to bring to you the excitement, the enthusiasm and the passion found only in live theatre! Lisa Martin-Stuart Co-Artistic Director Department Chair On the cover: 2014 production of Hamlet at Drayton Hall Theatre. Photo by Jason Ayer.
Robert Richmond Co-Artistic Director Associate Dept. Chair
Written by Ellen McLaughlin Directed by Peter Duffy Somewhere in the world, at any given moment, American soldiers are on duty and in harm’s way. Ajax in Iraq explores our military troops’ personal struggles by juxtaposing the devastating experiences of A.J., a young, female American soldier fighting in Iraq, with the centuries-old tale of Sophocles’ Ajax, tragic hero of the Trojan War. The goddess Athena coolly presides over these parallel stories in playwright Ellen McLaughlin’s powerfully contemporary nightmare of war, inspired in part by interviews with Iraq War veterans and their families. “Sophocles and post-traumatic stress disorder commingle in Ajax in Iraq…to dazzling, disturbing effect...a dead-on triumph– raw, provocative, poetic and indelible.” – LA Times Ajax in Iraq contains adult language and content which is not suitable for children.
SHOW TIMES October 3: 8pm October 4: 8pm October 5: 3pm
October 8: 8pm October 9: 8pm October 10: 8pm
October 11: 3pm & 8pm
Written by Thornton Wilder Directed by Steven Pearson Thornton Wilder’s hauntingly beautiful Our Town was described by playwright Edward Albee as “the greatest American play ever written.” Through Wilder’s artfully simple prose, we are transported through a timeless, quintessentially American experience, as young George and Emily meet, fall in love and marry. While we share in their journey, we find ourselves witnessing a full life cycle — from childhood to adulthood, and, ultimately, the grave. Wilder’s beloved, Pulitzer Prize-winning drama opens our eyes to all we take for granted — the beautiful small details of everyday existence in a world “too wonderful for anybody to realize.” “As the playwright positions the town of Grover’s Corners and its mundane individuals against the vast context of endless time and a boundless universe, his drama celebrates both the marvel of everyday existence and the ‘something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.’” – The New York Times
SHOW TIMES November 14: 8pm November 15: 8pm November 16: 3pm
November 19: 8pm November 20: 8pm November 21: 8pm
November 22: 3pm & 8pm Hands illustration by Lisa Ashworth
Written by Brian Friel Director To Be Announced In Translations, playwright Brian Friel (Dancing at Lughnasa) explores the troubled lives of those caught in a profoundly complicated, shifting political and cultural landscape -- a world where the very foundations of language and society are shifting to something unknown and troubling. While that may seem like a description of our world today, the dramatic events of this story take place in the mid-nineteenth century, as England attempts to end generations of bloodshed with Ireland by forcing standardized English as the official language. Widely considered one of Friel’s greatest works, Translations is at once a haunting and heartfelt look at how the lives, loves and traditions of a people are irreversibly altered by a collision of cultures. “A basic fluency in the workings of the human heart is all that’s necessary to absorb the beauties of Mr. Friel’s tender, sad and funny play about the difficulty of finding a home in the world, a person to share it with, and a name to call it by.” — The New York Times
SHOW TIMES February 20: 8pm February 21: 8pm February 22: 3pm
February 25: 8pm February 26: 8pm February 27: 8pm
February 28: 3pm & 8pm
Written by Alexandre Dumas Adapted by Ken Ludwig Directed by Robert Richmond This 2006 adaptation by playwright Ken Ludwig (Lend Me A Tenor) is a rousing, action-packed spin on Alexandre Dumas’ classic adventure tale. As in the original novel, the story begins as the impetuous, young D’Artagnan journeys to Paris on a quest to find a place of honor alongside the Musketeers, legendary protectors of the French monarchy. Ludwig adds a mischievous twist to the tale, however; in this version, the young hero is forced to bring along his headstrong kid sister, Sabine. The two soon become entangled in the courageous exploits of Athos, Porthos and Aramis, finding themselves in a feverish fight to defend the honor of the Queen from the conniving Cardinal Richelieu. “[A] slick, swashbuckling romp that cleverly updates the Dumas novel…strengthening its timeless appeal.” – The Guardian
SHOW TIMES April 17: 8pm April 18: 8pm April 19: 3pm
April 22: 8pm April 23: 8pm April 24: 8pm
April 25: 3pm & 8pm Sword and hat illustration by Lisa Ashworth
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Your support makes it all happen! Your tax-deductible contribution earns you a place in The Circle, our highly-esteemed donor network. As a member, you will join other like-minded individuals who love theatre and who know that the arts need support to survive and thrive. As a member you can receive free tickets, special event invitations, recognition in each show’s program and the satisfaction of knowing you are helping to create the finest theatrical experience in the state for our patrons and students alike. To join, fill out and mail back the donor form in the back of this brochure, or download a form at: artsandsciences.sc.edu/thea. You can also email theatre@sc.edu with your desired membership level and contact information.
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Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Directed by David Britt
When we meet Brandon Hardy, he’s leading a charmed life as the popular star student at a prestigious Washington, DC prep school. His world of privilege is threatened, however, as he becomes implicated in a scandal that threatens to shatter his picture-perfect existence forever. “…a craftily constructed, psychologically astute, absorbing play that harbors claws the fiercest feline could envy.” — Bloomberg.com Good Boys and True contains adult language and content which is not suitable for children
Written by Deborah Brevoort Directed by Grace Ann Roberts Faculty Supervised by Erica Tobolski Inspired by a true story, The Women of Lockerbie explores how love can win over hate, even in the face of unspeakable tragedy. With poetic language presented in a style that evokes classic Greek tragedy, playwright Deborah Brevoort tells the story of a mother from New Jersey who travels to Scotland in search for her son’s remains after the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. While in the hills of Lockerbie, she encounters a group of local women attempting to foster healing -- in spite of US government regulations -- by washing the clothes of the dead and returning them to mourning families. “In its tightly controlled depiction of collective sorrow…it becomes almost unbearably moving.” — Daily Telegraph
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Written and Directed by Ryan Stevens Faculty Supervised by Sarah Barker
Undergraduate student Ryan Stevens directs his original play about a theater company working on an incoming production of Hamlet. When an egotistical actor is snubbed for the titular part, he takes manners into his own hands to manipulate his fellow actors and superiors. Simultaneously, two quick-mouthed set designers, smelling chicanery in the works, set out to establish themselves as the chief architects of whimsy in the theater and maintain order, or at least their version of it.
It’s a season of change for the Center for Performance Experiment, our unique performance space dedicated to actor training. In addition to moving to a brand new facility (location to be announced soon), we’re welcoming a talented new group of MFA Acting students. The experiment continues, however! Here’s just some of what we have in store:
February 23 - 28 Balance | Written by Robyn Hunt Conceived and Directed by Steven Pearson This physically-demanding work is a whimsical take on Chekhov’s Three Sisters which also explores the nature of time and the Oxford English Dictionary!
April 27 & 29 Macbeth | Written by William Shakespeare Directed by Steven Pearson Shakespeare’s classic tragedy about the dark side of ambition gets an innovative new staging!
Pictured: February, 2014 CPE production of Swimming in the Shallows by Adam Bock. Photo by Cory Alpert.
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Titles and dates subject to change.
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To purchase tickets, call 803-777-2551. Or, purchase in person at Longstreet Theatre. Box office hours: Monday through Friday, 12:30pm - 5:30pm. Box office opens one week prior to each production run. Longstreet Theatre is located at 1300 Greene St. Drayton Hall Theatre is located at 1214 College St.
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THEATRE SOUTH CAROLINA Longstreet Theatre 1300 Greene St. Columbia SC 29208 803.777.4288 | theatre@sc.edu