Contact: Department of Theatre, (517) 355-6690; or Kristan Tetens, University Relations, (517) 355-5633, tetenskr@msu.edu
3/15/2005
EAST LANSING, Mich. � Classics by Mark Twain and Arthur Miller are among the plays that will be performed this June on the banks of the Red Cedar River as Michigan State University�s Summer Circle Theatre marks its 45th anniversary.
The season will open with Evan Smith�s �The Uneasy Chair� on June 8-11; continue with Twain�s �Is He Dead?� on June 15-18 and close with Miller�s �All My Sons� on June 22-25.
Shows will be presented Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Admission is free, although donations are suggested. Lawn and bleacher seating are first-come, first-served. Early arrival is recommended. Blankets and folding chairs (for lawn seating) and insect repellent are also recommended. A variety of refreshments will be sold on site. Performances are almost never cancelled because of weather.
The 2005 Summer Circle Theatre company includes more than two dozen community and campus actors and technical support staff.
�There is one basic premise of Summer Circle that has remained constant over our 45 years,� said Frank C. Rutledge, chairperson of the MSU Department of Theatre. �It is still a town-gown program that showcases the best available talent among our students and the mid-Michigan community.
�The upcoming season of plays by American playwrights continues our yearlong effort to commemorate the university�s sesquicentennial as a great American university.�
June 8-11
�The Uneasy Chair� by Evan Smith
Directed by Rob Roznowski
�The Uneasy Chair� is a bewitching comedy of 19th-century Victorian manners. Amelia Pickles, a prim and proper spinster of modest means, agrees to rent a room in her London house to a retired military man, Capt. Josiah Wickett. The arrangement seems to be working until Mr. Wickett decides to play matchmaker with Miss Pickles� prissy niece Alexandrina, and his nephew, Darlington, an officer in the cavalry. Through a gross misinterpretation, Miss Pickles believes that she, not Alexandrina, is the object of Mr. Wickett�s, not Darlington�s, affection. Miss Pickles is convinced that Mr. Wickett will soon ask for her hand in marriage. When he denies this, she decides to sue her boarder for breach of promise. Mr. Wickett loses. Or does he? Just maybe these two were meant to be together after all. �The Uneasy Chair� offers a fast-paced plot, sparkling language and quick wit.
June 15-18
�Is He Dead?� by Mark Twain
Directed by Frank C. Rutledge
Mark Twain was fascinated by the theater and although he made many attempts at playwriting, many critics think this three-act comedy � written in 1898 � is his best. Today�s audiences will enjoy the play�s well-crafted dialogue, intriguing cast of characters and Twain�s characteristic ebullience and humor. Richly intermingling elements of burlesque, farce and social satire with a wry look at the world art market, �Is He Dead?� centers on a group of poor artists in Barbizon, France, who stage the death of a friend to drive up the price of his paintings. In order to make this scheme succeed, the artists hatch some hilarious plots involving cross-dressing, a full-scale fake funeral, lovers� deceptions and much more. �Is He Dead?� has been called �a champagne cocktail of a play � not too dry, not too sweet, with just the right amount of bubbles and buzz.�
June 22-25
�All My Sons� by Arthur Miller
Director to be announced
�All My Sons,� which was Arthur Miller�s first commercially successful play, opened at the Coronet Theatre in New York on Jan. 29, 1947. It ran for 328 performances and garnered the prestigious New York Drama Critics� Circle Award. The play is set at the end of World War II. Chris Keller returns home from service in the military. His father, Joe Keller, ran a machine shop with Herbert Deever during the war. The two men knowingly delivered defective airplane parts to the government � parts that were implicated in the deaths of 21 pilots. Keller escaped punishment; Deever was sent to prison. Chris�s brother Larry, who also served in the military, has been missing and presumed dead for nearly three years. Larry�s fianc�e, Herbert Deever�s daughter Ann, begins an affair with Chris, creating a charged atmosphere in the Keller home that results in the full extent of Joe Keller�s responsibility for the faulty airplane parts being revealed. Chris�s reaction to his father�s guilt escalates toward a climax of electrifying intensity. �All My Sons� established Miller as a leading voice in the American theater and introduced themes that would reappear in his later work, including the relationships between fathers and sons and the conflict between business and personal ethics.
For more information about the Department of Theatre, visit www.theatre.msu.edu. For a history of the Summer Circle Theatre, visit www.summercircle.org/