school of fine arts eastern illinois university

CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS 61920 217/ 581 -3110 2

DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE ARTS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE•••••••••••••

Walter Mitty will ride again, Mr. Preble will invite his wife down to the cellar, a murder-mystery fan will solve the crimes in "Macbeth," and an abundance of other humorous classics by the great humorist, James Thurber, will come to life on the stage of the Eastern Illinois University Theatre Playroom when "A Thurber Carnival" is presented there beginning September 23, at 8:00p.m. Other performances at 8:00 p.m. are September 24 and 25 with a matinee performance Sunday, September 26 at 2:00 p.m.

"A Thurber Carnival" is a staged anthology in revue fot~m · of some of the most zany short stories, fables, childhood recollections and cartoons that first appeared in The New Yorker Magazine, and later in a long series of books, by the man called by Time Magazine "the most splendidly mad of modern humorists." The revue is a culling of 30 years of Thurber satires on a world in which everyone is to some extent out of his mind. Time Magazine called it "uniquely wonderful."

When it was first presented in New York in 1960, "A Thurber Carnival" achieved an overwhelming success and proved that the Thurberian mixture of deadpan humor, imagination and intelligence can be as funny when spoken as when read.

The nine member cast will be re-creating the perposterous, wacky, off-center, anti-gravity Thurberite universe. By means of a pair of scenes called "Word Dance," some of Thurber's most hilarious cartoon-captions find theatrical expression. In these scenes couples are dancing and their small-talk is uproariously heard during music-lulls, such as a woman's remark to her husband, "Walter Lippman scared me this morning. Why can't he be more cheerful?"

Patrick Richardson will edify audiences with a recital of the immortal Thurber tale about "The Night the Bed Fell," and in a scene with Wm. Jack Pierson and Scott Zimmerman he will reveal how history might have been different "If Grant Had Been Drinking At Appomatox." Ms. Teri McClure will enact the story of "The Last Flower," and Mr. Scott Stanley, as the homicidally-bent Mr. Preble, as the wolf in a new twist on Little Red Riding Hood, as a Christmas­ shopper getting sloshed on store-provided cocktails, will deliver some of the monumental Thurber cliches with dead-pan innocence.

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The appropriately wacky, wistful touches to the performances are being applied to this revue by Donna Shehorn as the director, and the settings, derived from Thurber's famous doodle-like drawings, are being designed by Teri McClure .

Tickets for the production become available beginning Monday, September 20 from 1-5 p.m. at the Fine Arts Ticket Office. Reservations may be made at the Ticket Office or by phoning 581-3110 • Non-reserved seat tickets are $2 . 50 for adults, $1 . 50 for youth • and $1.00 for Eastern students. - 30-

J. Sain Theatre Arts Dept. Eastern Illinois University Charleston, Illinois 61920

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