March 30, 2007

Festival Playhouse Announces its 2007-2008 Season

KALAMAZOO, MI – The Theatre Arts Department of Kalamazoo College presents the 44th season of Festival Playhouse, featuring some of the greatest plays ever written, all combining themes of wellness and social justice--thus the season's title: "Just as Well: Seeking Wellness Through the Ties That Bind Us." The main stage performances include an all-female version of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, Hamlet. In collaboration with The Whole Art Theatre, the Festival Playhouse presents the Mid-western premiere of Well, by Broadway playwright, actress, and Kalamazoo College alumna Lisa Kron. That production will feature guest artist and professional actress Sharon Williams. Finally, guest artist Rebecca Patterson, artistic director of The Queens Company in New York City, will direct Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches.

And that's not all. The Dungeon Theatre will house performances of Samuel Beckett’s classic existential comedy, Waiting for Godot, Eric Bogosian’s contemporary American drama, SubUrbia, and the annual Senior Performance Series of student directed one-act plays.

The three main stage performances are held in the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse. Tickets for opening nights are $1 at the door only, all other performances are $15 adults, $10 student /seniors. Dungeon Theatre series tickets are $5 at the door only. For more information, call 269-337-7333 or visit www.kzoo.edu/theatre.

FALL 2007

Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett
Directed by guest artist Todd Espeland
November 2-4, 2007
Dungeon Theatre

Hailed by some as the greatest play of the 20th century, Beckett’s most famous play explores the “wellness and justice” of the metaphysics of the universe through slapstick comedy.

Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
All-female cast directed by Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Karen Berthel
November 15-18, 2007
Nelda K. Balch Playhouse

A tragedy full of murder, suicide, ghosts, gravediggers, and skulls, Hamlet embodies the dysfunctional ties that bind at the level of both family and state.

WINTER 2008

SubUrbia
by Eric Bogosian
Directed by senior theatre arts major Paul Whitehouse
February 15-17, 2008
Dungeon Theatre

Written by one of America’s most provocative performance artists, Eric Bogosian (Talk Radio, Drinking in America), the play tells the story of a group of teenage slackers in a 7-11 parking lot in the 1980s, negotiating the boredom, frustration, and racism in their lives.

Well
by Lisa Kron, Class of 1983
Directed by Professor of Theatre Arts Ed Menta,
Produced in collaboration with The Whole Art Theatre, and
Featuring guest artist and professional actress, Sharon Williams
February 28-March 1, 2008
Nelda K. Balch Playhouse

Broadway actress, playwright, and Kalamazoo College alumna Lisa Kron is an award-winning performance artist and writer. We are thrilled to present the Midwest premiere of Lisa’s recent Broadway success, nominated for a Tony Award, an autobiographical comedy about wellness, racial integration, and most of all, the relationship between a daughter and a mother (played by Kalamazoo Community Medal of Arts award winner, Sharon Williams).

SPRING 2008

SENIOR PERFORMANCE SERIES
May 2-4, 2008
Dungeon Theatre
Plays & Student Directors To Be Determined

Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College is always proud to present our "best and brightest," students creating their own theatre. Recent student directed productions in the Senior Performance Series include the sold-out, Sam Shepard’s Savage/Love and Pablo Neruda’s only play, The Splendor and Death of Joaquin Murieta.

Angels in America
Part One: Millennium Approaches
by Tony Kushner
Directed by Guest artist Rebecca Patterson, co-founder (with Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Karen Berthel) and artistic director of New York City's The Queen's Company
May 15-19, 2008
Nelda K. Balch Playhouse

Sub-titled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” Kushner’s Pulitizer and Tony Award-winning drama set during the AIDS epidemic of Ronald Reagan’s 1980’s presidency contains the mighty scope of sweeping political theatre and the humor and touching emotion of an intimate love story.

A Fellowship in Learning: At Home in the World, Kalamazoo College is a national liberal arts college and the creator and home of the Kalamazoo Plan. By emphasizing scholarship, civic engagement, and foreign study, Kalamazoo College cultivates a fellowship in learning among students, faculty, and a community of scholars throughout the world. Its students shape elements of the Kalamazoo Plan—rigorous academics, career internships, study abroad, service-learning, and a senior individualized project—into an educational experience that provides insight into the meaning of the kind of citizenship that is at home in the world.