Theater season to open with Shakespeare
The UIndy Department of Theatre‘s 2015-2016 performance season includes a Shakespearean tragedy, a dinner-theater comedy and a unique contemporary piece based on a real news event and its aftermath.
Associate Professor Jim Ream, longtime faculty member and former department chair, will carry the lead role in the classic King Lear, which kicks off the season with its Oct. 23 opening. Aside from his many contributions on campus, Ream has worked with most of the region’s key theater organizations and won numerous awards for his talent and expertise in set design and production technology.
Again this year, admission to theater productions is free for UIndy students, faculty and staff with ID ($14 for Dinner Theatre), and L/P credit is available for students. All productions include a free preview on the Thursday before opening night, as well as a Half-Price Second Thursday performance, with tickets priced at just $6 for the general public. Tickets are available through the Event Ticketing Center at Ransburg Auditorium as well as at www.uindy.edu/arts/ETC or (317) 788-3251.
The full schedule, with pricing for the general public, is:
King Lear
By William Shakespeare
October 23-24 and 29-31, 8 p.m.; October 25, 2 p.m.
Ransburg Auditorium, Esch Hall
Admission: $12 general; $10 for alumni, senior citizens, groups of eight or more, and non-UIndy students with ID
Free preview: October 22, 8 p.m.
Half-Price Second Thursday: October 29, 8 p.m.
Long ago in ancient Britain, King Lear contemplates retirement. He will divide his empire among his three daughters, as there are no male heirs to inherit the throne. Lear plans to give the largest portion of his kingdom to the daughter who professes to love him the most. He is certain he knows which daughter that will be, but are his instincts correct?
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Student-Directed Productions
December 4-6 and 10-12, 8 p.m. (curtain times subject to change)
Studio Theatre, Esch Hall
Admission: $12 general; $10 for alumni, senior citizens, groups of eight or more, and non-UIndy students with ID
Free preview: December 3, 8 p.m.
Half-Price Second Thursday: December 10, 8 p.m.
Productions are staffed and designed by students, who use them as a laboratory experience, putting into practice the principles they have learned in the classroom. Working closely with the faculty and staff, the students select, cast, and direct the plays and supervise the lighting, design, and construction for the productions. Specific shows to be announced.
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Dinner Theatre: Out of Order
By Ray Cooney
Presented by special arrangement with Samuel French Inc.
Feb. 19-21 and 25-27; dinner 6:45 p.m., performance 8 p.m.
Schwitzer Student Center Dining Hall
Admission: $26 general; $24 for alumni, senior citizens, groups of eight or more, and non-UIndy students with ID; $14 for UIndy students, faculty, and staff
Free preview: February 18, 8 p.m. (performance only, no dinner)
Half-Price Second Thursday: February 25, 8 p.m. ($6, performance only, no dinner)
When Richard Willey, a government junior minister, plans to spend the evening with Jane Worthington, one of the opposition’s typists, things go disastrously wrong. The play won the 1991 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy.
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The Laramie Project
By Moisés Kaufman and the Members of Tectonic Theater Project
Presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Services Inc.
April 22-24 and 28-30, 8 p.m.
Studio Theatre, Esch Hall
Admission: $12 general; $10 for alumni, senior citizens, groups of eight or more, and non-UIndy students with ID
Free preview: April 21, 8 p.m.
Half-Price Second Thursday: April 28, 8 p.m.
The 1998 beating death of 21-year-old University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard drew attention to anti-gay violence and inspired federal hate crime legislation. In the wake of the incident, playwright Moisés Kaufman and fellow members of Tectonic Theater Project made six trips to Laramie and conducted more than 200 interviews with the people of the town, finding a broad range of reactions to the crime. From these interviews and their own experiences, they constructed a moving theatrical experience that explores the depths to which humanity can sink and the heights of compassion of which we are capable.