University of Southern Indiana Theatre opens the 2011-12 season with
Joe Calarco's
Shakespeare's R&J on Friday, October 14. The play, directed by
Elliot Wasserman, gives a glimpse of the world of Romeo and Juliet acted out as an escape for four boys looking to break away from the rigidity and routine of life far from home. "The boys are breathing the most beautiful, lyrical poetry in our language and finding in it the pure truth of what they deeply feel," said Wasserman. "Shakespeare does not teach them to feel that truth, but he provides them the means to express it."
"It's a passionately energetic, thoroughly absorbing show that is as much about the forbidden love between men as about the taboo love between young people from enemy families," says
New York Newsday.
The cast includes four boarding school boys played by USI students
Patrick Litteken, Craig Patterson, Kaleb Sullivan, and
Julian Velasquez.
The USI Theatre is changing the schedule for this fall's productions. Opening night will begin on a Friday night and the show will run through the following Friday with Monday as the only day off for the show during the one week run. The play will be staged at 7:30 p.m. October 14-15 and 17-21 and 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 16 in the Mallette Studio Theatre on the lower level of the Liberal Arts Center on USI's campus.
The artistic team for
Shakespeare's R&J includes USI theatre faculty
Eric Altheide as fight choreographer,
Robert Broadfoot as scenic designer,
Eric Cope as lighting designer,
Shan Jensen as costume designer and USI theatre student
Daniel Kopp as sound designer.
Tickets are $7 for USI students, $12 for adults, and $10 for seniors (60+) and non-USI students. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit
www.usi.edu/theatre or call the box office at 812/465-1668.
Set your schedules to see USI Theatre's upcoming production of
Rent, with book, music and lyrics by
Jonathan Larson, musical arrangements by
Steve Skinner, and original concept/additional lyrics by
Billy Aronson, running November 11-18. In the spring, the Repertory Project will open with
Pride and Prejudice, by
Jon Jory, which will play in rotation with
William Shakespeare's
All's Well that Ends Well. Performances run March 20-April 1. Tickets for all three upcoming productions are on sale now.
