Theater - 1996-1997

A play by Tony Kushner

 

Production Staff

Director: James Fisher

 

Angels in America has received what can only be described as extraordinary critical and audience acclaim.  It received back-to-back Tony Awards for Best Play of the Year on Broadway, a Pulitzer Prize in 1993, and a host of other awards.  Millennium Approaches, the first of the two Angels in America plays, provides a portrait of life in the United States in the midst of the Reagan presidency-a highly charged transitional period in the view of the playwright.  The lives of one gay couple and one married couple intersect with each other and with the world of political powerbroker Roy Cohn.  Millennium Approaches asks astounding and moving questions about the state of the American experiment.  What claim can we make to humanity in a nation racially, politically, morally, and sexually divided?  Can we embrace change before it is too late?  Can we make room at the table for everyone?  Is America plummeting toward apocalypse or a brighter new tomorrow?  Time Magazine’s critic called the play “inspired”, New York Times writer Anna Quindlen described it as “a brilliant, brilliant play about love and the human condition at a time when our understanding of what it means to be human and loving has, thankfully, expanded,” and Frank Rich, also writing in the New York Times, noted that Kushner “has written the most thrilling American play in years.”  New Yorker critic John Lahr has written that Angels is “a victory for Kushner, the theatre, for the transforming power of the imagination to turn devastation into beauty.”

 

This page is part of an ongoing project to document the history of the theatre productions performed at Wabash College.  If you have information not included on this page, please contact the Theater Department or Professor Dwight Watson (watsond@wabash.edu).

A play by Fredrich Dürrenmatt

 

Director: Dwight Watson

Scenic Designer: Marc Doshi '97

Lighting Designer: Lonna Wilke

Costume Designer: Laura Conners

Stage Manager: Martin Choo

 

Claire Zachanassian: Jamie Ritchie-Watson

Moby: Luke Krueger '00

Boby: J.R. Sherburne

Toby: Mike Haas '98

Roby: Dean Leustek

Koby: Tony Goodwyn '00

Loby: Tom Lustina '99

 

Anton Schill: Jonathan Foust '98

The Burgomaster: B.J. Lyda '99

The Priest: T.J. Ronningen '99

The Schoolmaster: Joshua Cohen '99

The Doctor: Kenny Patterson '95

The Policeman: Parker Lyons '97

Frau Schill, Chorus: Jenny Foster

Schill’s Daughter, Chorus: Anna Fisher

Schill’s Son, Chorus: Sam Sherburne

The Painter, Chorus: Kofi Darku '98

The Conductor, Chorus: David Hirt '00

The Stationmaster, Chorus: Robert Wilson '98

A Reporter, Chorus: Andrew Jones '99

 

Propsmaster: T.J. Ronningen '99

Master Electrician: Mike Haas '98

Master Welder: Josh Boeglin '98

Lightboard Operator: Bill Kallister '98

Soundboard Operator: Michael Quach '97

Slide Image Coordinator: Evan West

Slide Projector Operator: Travis Kirkman

Poster Design: Clay Laughary '97

 

The impoverished town of Güllen hopefully awaits a visit from Claire Zachanassian, an eccentric billionaires who was once a resident. When Claire arrives, the townspeople accept as charming such peculiarities as her sleek pet panther, the cigars she smokes, and the coffin she carries about with her. They rejoice when they learn of her beneficent plan-to give the people of Güllen more money than they ever imagined. But there is a condition. In her youth she was seduced and disgraced by Anton Schill, now a respected local merchant of Güllen. Claire wants to buy justice; when Schill’s life is taken, the town will get its money. The remainder of the play shows the gradual corruption of the citizenry-and the noose tightening on Schill’s neck. Voted best foreign play of the year by N.Y. Drama Critics Circle. “Stinging…the flesh crawls; the play moves on its own astonishing power.” (N.Y. Herald Tribune)

 

The program for The Visit included several notes, titled "A Study Guide". Due to time restrictions, I have chosen simply to list the articles here instead of reproducing them. The first is an encyclopedia entry of Dürrenmatt and a complete list of his plays from the ­Encyclopedia of World Drama­ copyrighted 1972. The next entry lists the production record of The Visit, as well as an interview with the playwright. This was done by Rundolph Goodman, from Drama on Stage copyright 1978. -Cody Grady '10  Summer 2008

 

This page is part of an ongoing project to document the history of the theatre productions performed at Wabash College.  If you have information not included on this page, please contact the Theater Department or Professor Dwight Watson (watsond@wabash.edu).

A play by Aristophanes

Freely adapted by Michael Abbott '85

 

Production Staff

Director: Michael Abbott '85

 

Lysistrata has a scheme. She has devised a foolproof plan for the women of Athens to put an end to a long and bloody war. Her scheme, of course, is preposterous, but the very outrageousness of it makes it work. Soon her idea begins to seem almost reasonable. Aristophanes’ Lysistrata is perhaps the most significant comedy ever written. As a comic writer Aristophanes was a profound influence through the ages, providing characters, plots, and themes for works ranging from Plautus’ Braggart Soldier to Woody Allen’s recent Mighty Aphrodite. Lysistrata poses several important and provocative questions: Is it possible for a group of women to band together and stop a war? Is it possible for a 2,400 year-old comedy to be funny today? Is it possible to stage a play filled with women at an all-male college? This new musical adaptation by Assistant Professor of Theater Michael Abbott of the classic Aristophanic comedy proves the answer to all these questions is yes!

 

This page is part of an ongoing project to document the history of the theatre productions performed at Wabash College.  If you have information not included on this page, please contact the Theater Department or Professor Dwight Watson (watsond@wabash.edu