This Year in UNCW Theatre
Trey Morehouse | Staff Writer
Issue date: 9/23/09 Section: Lifestyles
With two classics and two new plays, UNCW's theatrical season will prove to be one to remember. Dr. Charles Grimes, a part-time professor for the theatre department and an expert in dramatic literature, has had an active hand in both selecting plays for this season and with helping make these plays come to life.
UNCW will begin this season with Samuel Beckett's classic Waiting For Godot. The play is a hallmark in absurdist theatre and is often regarded as one of the most influential plays of the twentieth century. Waiting for Godot is being directed by professor Scott Nice, who is an expert in voice and movement training for actors. This will be Nice's first show directed for the UNCW stage. He has taken a somewhat controversial choice in casting all female students in a play that was written for four men.
"The all-female cast is a great way to find new relevance in an old play," said Grimes. "Beckett dealt with universals of the human nature."
Godot will be performed Oct. 15 through Oct. 19.
UNCW will be presenting Henrik Ibsen's masterpiece The Wild Duck in November. While considered by many critics to be Ibsen's most complex and intricate work, The Wild Duck is probably one of his lesser known plays (especially among most college students). Director Ed Wagenseller has decided on taking the Victorian work and updating it to take place in 1950s America. Grimes was given the task of reworking the piece and to essentially rewrite the play to fit with the American 1950s vernacular.
"We chose to make a new version, because all previous translations are too stilted and artificial sounding. This is primarily due to translations being written by Victorian writers," said Grimes. "To make this story accessible, we decided to find an era in American history that is reminiscent of the Victorian era." The Wild Duck will be presented Nov. 15 through Nov. 19.
Kicking off the spring will be the 2004 play Our Lady of 121st Street, written by Stephen Adly Guirgis. The story begins when the body of a recently deceased, and much loved, community activist and nun mysteriously disappears. The story details the community's reaction to this apparent theft. The play is being co-sponsored by the Upperman African American Cultural Center.
UNCW will begin this season with Samuel Beckett's classic Waiting For Godot. The play is a hallmark in absurdist theatre and is often regarded as one of the most influential plays of the twentieth century. Waiting for Godot is being directed by professor Scott Nice, who is an expert in voice and movement training for actors. This will be Nice's first show directed for the UNCW stage. He has taken a somewhat controversial choice in casting all female students in a play that was written for four men.
"The all-female cast is a great way to find new relevance in an old play," said Grimes. "Beckett dealt with universals of the human nature."
Godot will be performed Oct. 15 through Oct. 19.
UNCW will be presenting Henrik Ibsen's masterpiece The Wild Duck in November. While considered by many critics to be Ibsen's most complex and intricate work, The Wild Duck is probably one of his lesser known plays (especially among most college students). Director Ed Wagenseller has decided on taking the Victorian work and updating it to take place in 1950s America. Grimes was given the task of reworking the piece and to essentially rewrite the play to fit with the American 1950s vernacular.
"We chose to make a new version, because all previous translations are too stilted and artificial sounding. This is primarily due to translations being written by Victorian writers," said Grimes. "To make this story accessible, we decided to find an era in American history that is reminiscent of the Victorian era." The Wild Duck will be presented Nov. 15 through Nov. 19.
Kicking off the spring will be the 2004 play Our Lady of 121st Street, written by Stephen Adly Guirgis. The story begins when the body of a recently deceased, and much loved, community activist and nun mysteriously disappears. The story details the community's reaction to this apparent theft. The play is being co-sponsored by the Upperman African American Cultural Center.
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