SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg University Department of Theatre and Dance is preparing for a busy February as students and faculty finalize script interpretations, dress the stage and set the lights for two separate productions.
In honor of Black History month, senior theatre major Latifah Hafeez, of Springfield, will direct scenes from various important 20th century black plays at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 6 and 7. The performances will take place in Wittenberg's Blair Hall Theatre. Tickets are free and available at the door one hour before show time.
Later in the month, Feb. 19-21, Wittenberg will welcome guest director Judy Berdan as she stages, Our Country's Good, by contemporary British playwright, Timberlake Wertenbaker. Berdan will visit Wittenberg from the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, one of the nation's important regional companies.
Set in Sidney, Australia, in 1788, Our Country's Good is a moving story of how theatre can be a civilizing influence in a new country. Wertenbaker tells the true story of the first British convicts to be transported to the furthest place known to man, the newly discovered Australia. These unwilling pioneers found themselves trapped between slow starvation, the brutality of the soldiers guarding them and the terrors of the wilds and the natives.
"There's a mixture of brutality, terror, humor, irony, nascent love, dreams of ghosts and philosophizing about the nature of art in general and theatre in particular. Wertenbaker touches all the bases. (She) has created a riveting, absorbing stage fiction around the existing historical facts." - The Hollywood Reporter
Wittenberg's production will feature an all-student cast, led by veteran main stage actors Matt Woods-Koppitch, a senior from Indianapolis, Ind., Seton Brown, a senior from Springfield, and Shannon Anderson, a sophomore from Winter Haven, Fla.
Performances in Chakeres Theatre will be staged at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, and Friday, Feb. 20, and at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21. Beginning Feb. 9, the $4 tickets will be available at the service center desk inside Wittenberg's Benham-Pence Student Center.
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