REBECCA HALE
Reverb Editor
Whether you’re a theater junkie or just a student looking for some entertainment, the Department of Theatre and Dance’s array of plays and musicals is sure to please all audiences. This semester, the theaters are already booked up between the Walter Gloor Mainstage shows “Balm in Gilead” and “Hair: The American Tribal Rock Musical” and the annual Fredonia Dance Ensemble performance. In addition to those shows, the Performing Arts Company will also be putting on two of its own plays, “This Is Our Youth” and “Spring Awakening.”
First up is “Balm In Gilead,” which will run Feb. 27 – 28 and March 5 – 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Bartlett Theatre and will close on March 7 with a showing at 2 p.m. Written by Lanford Wilson, the play is set in the ‘60s in a Manhattan café. This production is unique in the way that it is more cinematic in nature, featuring overlapping dialogue and simultaneous scenes.
The themes within “Balm in Gilead” are heavy, involving drug use and prostitution. The plot follows the struggles of Joe, a small-time drug dealer, and Darlene, a young and naive woman who is new to the city.
The Department of Theatre and Dance has big plans for the scenic design of “Balm in Gilead,” as they are working to create a space in which the audience can really feel that they are in the café itself. The set will even feature a 600-pound ceiling drop which will mask the lights above.
Tom Loughlin, the Department of Theatre and Dance Chair, describes the theme of “Balm in Gilead” as “the persistence of human existence.”
He went on to describe the characters within the show:
“People will do what they have to do to survive, and I think that there’s actually a certain hope in that, that as bad as things get, human beings seem to eventually, somehow, survive through them,” he said. “You may not necessarily approve of the way they survive, or what they have to do to survive, but they survive.”
The next show will be PAC’s “This Is Our Youth,” directed by Mark Diven, a senior BFA acting major. It will run at 7:30 p.m. on March 26, 27 and 28. “This Is Our Youth” was written by Kenneth Lonergan and is set in 1980s Manhattan, in the upper West Side. The show features only three characters, all of whom are young adults.
The show is thematically framed around the aftermath of the hippie culture of the ‘60s. After the anti-war sentiment of Vietnam, the anti-hippie culture emerged, causing a shift in morale. “This Is Our Youth” explores the rebellion of young adults against their more conservative parents, and involves many darker themes, including drugs and theft.
“They’re kind of underground, edgy people,” Diven noted of the characters. “It’s really not conventional, but it’s a look into their lives and how they got off the beaten trail.”
“This play shows the negative effect and the betrayal of the nation on hippie culture and how these youths were affected,” Diven said. He hopes that the production will be playing in a classroom in Houghton Hall, but the location is to be announced at a later date.
“Hair: The American Tribal Rock Musical,” the only musical of the semester, will play on April 9-11 at 7:30 p.m., April 12 at 2 p.m. and April 16-18 at 7:30 p.m. in Marvel Theatre. “Hair: The American Tribal Rock Musical” is a modern rock musical, similar to “RENT,” which the department put on last Spring. Another show set in the ‘60s, “Hair: The American Tribal Rock Musical” was written by James Rado and Gerome Ragni, with music by Galt MacDermot. The musical is set in a park in New York City, and is characterized by the themes of hippie counter-culture, drugs, sex, love and anti-war sentiment. The story follows the struggle of Claude, who has been drafted to the war; Berger, a young hippie; and a young tribe of hippies as they try to navigate through the political turmoil of 1968.
There has already been much talk about the infamous nude scene that occurs at the end of the first act of the musical. Loughlin assures viewers that it is completely up to the actors whether or not they are comfortable participating, and that the show does not require full nudity.
Loughlin says that seeing “Hair: The American Tribal Rock Musical” will help students better understand the struggle for personal freedom that was the reality in the sixties.
“Students will have a direct sense of what it was like back then, what people were thinking and how they took the thoughts and ideas and put them into this artistic construct,” he said.
Shortly after the close of “Hair: The American Tribal Rock Musical,” PAC will put on its second show, “Spring Awakening,” directed by Cody Jones, a senior dual English and BFA acting major. Not to be confused with the musical of the same name, “Spring Awakening” is the 1906 comic tragedy written by Frank Wedekind that inspired the popular 2009 musical.
“Spring Awakening” will be an elaborate animal for Jones to tackle, as the cast is large, the plot is complex and the themes are heavy and dark. Jones hopes to hold the production in one of the larger rehearsal rooms in the back of Mason Hall.
“Spring Awakening” revolves around a group of high schoolers who are attempting to seek information about life and sexuality, despite the effort of the adults around them to shield them from reality.
Although “Spring Awakening” is an older play, Jones has a more simplistic vision in mind for the set and costumes to make the production more relatable for students in this day and age.
Though the play is over a century old, Jones believes it to be timeless, and that the themes within it are still applicable today. His hope is that after seeing “Spring Awakening,” students will ponder their own beliefs and opinions.
“I hope that they walk out questioning what they believe in, and why, and where they get their information from, and who controls the knowledge that we get, and how they get it,” said Jones.
“Spring Awakening” will play on April 25 at 7 p.m. and April 26 at 2 p.m.
Finally, the Walter Gloor Mainstage Series will wrap up with the Fredonia Dance Ensemble on May 1- 2 at 7:30 p.m and May 3 at 2 p.m.
The Fredonia Dance Ensemble is an annual production put on by the Department of Theatre and Dance that students and faculty work on year-round. This year’s ensemble will feature seven pieces of all different genres, each with a different choreographer, including one choreographed by guest artist Rosy Simas, who visited Fredonia to hold auditions in September.
With rehearsals still in full swing, more details will come later in regards to the Fredonia Dance Ensemble.