Summer theater enters fourth season

April 28, 2008 —

While activity on campus may slow down during the spring and summer semesters, this certainly isn't the case for SVSU's Department of Theatre. Students and faculty are revving up for a performance-packed summer season featuring five shows, two of which senior theater majors are preparing to direct for their capstone projects in the program.

Faculty directors for the season are Professors of Theatre Steven Erickson and Janet Rubin, and Assistant Professor of Theatre Richard Roberts.

Erickson will direct The Water Engine, a play involving a young inventor's battle with a corrupt society run by big business in his attempt to market a water-powered engine in 1933. Rubin's show, Art, is an award-winning play that exhibits a group of friends' colorful debate over the meaning of "art" and friendship, and Roberts' show, The Andrews Brothers, is a musical review that features the amusing escapade of three Army brothers and a famous singer just before a USO show in the South Pacific.

The faculty lineup is part of SVSU's fourth consecutive year of spring and summer performances.

"The impetus for the season starting back in 2005," Erickson said, "was the fact that our department has grown to the extent where we have a lot more majors now, and we wanted to offer them more opportunities to be on stage. Also, we wanted to provide an entertainment service to both the University and the community at large because most theaters in the area are what we call 'dark' in the summer, meaning they shut down."

The season also benefits SVSU students who are taking spring and summer theater classes.

"The Theatre 128B course requires students to attend...performances and write critiques on them," Erickson said.

Students in both semesters have the opportunity to view three plays due to The Water Engine beginning at the end of the spring and carrying over into the summer.

While the directors have occasionally utilized the Lillian R. Zahnow Ampitheatre during the summer, all of this season's shows will be performed in the Black Box.

"Generally, when we do shows that we consider to be a little more intimate, the smaller space works well," Rubin said. "We also have flexibility there because we can arrange the seating differently, so it really lends itself nicely to the kind of work we want to represent in this season."

Theater seniors Patrick Konesko and Chad Baker are fulfilling their senior project requirements by directing The Pillowman and Dog Sees God, respectively.

Konesko describes Pillowman, which he deems suitable for mature audiences only, as "a look at the nature of art and storytelling through the interrogation of a writer about the gruesome content of his short stories." This is Konesko's second time directing, as he directed Wonder of the World through Work N' Progress (a student run production company) in the fall.

According to Baker, Dog Sees God is a dark comedy featuring a cast of grown-up characters from the Peanuts comic strip, who encounter an array of serious issues in high school including drugs, identity issues, and suicide.

"I think what I enjoy most about senior projects in general," Baker said, "is that student directors are more willing to push the limits in terms of the shows that we do, which is something that the professors aren't always willing to do."

He views both his project and Konesko's as having the potential to raise controversy due to their dark nature in one form or another, but adds that they are "both presenting different types of theater that audiences wouldn't necessarily be able to see in this area otherwise."

Baker will hold auditions for his show on May 13, and Konesko's opening performance is scheduled to kick off the summer season on Tuesday, May 20.

"It has already been a tremendously positive experience for me," Konesko said, "and I am confident that it will continue to be so."

Performance dates:

The Pillowman, by Martin McDonaugh
May 20 through 23 @ 7:30 pm

Art, by Yasmina Reza
June 4 through 7 @ 7:30 pm

The Water Engine, by David Mamet
June 17 through 20 @ 7:30 pm

Dog Sees God, by Bert V. Royal
July 15 through 17 & 19 @ 7:30 pm

The Andrews Brothers, by Roger Bean
Aug. 5 though 10 @ 7:30 pm

Tickets:
$10 general admission and $7 students and senior citizens (Brothers is $13 and $10 respectively due to music rights)