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m\M\ OFIC S(^n§^U/kr Sen^aPmf UFRUDLJ IIVJ O I ^A. IVJ yi^ V VW^ •A N .£[ -30tK ArLnicerscLry SecLSort- 19 9 5-1996 Scfimi &( Fine and Perpmln§- ArB DeparPmen!^ &( TkaPre JIHIHHP The School of Fine and Performing Arts Department of Theatre presents Purdue-Indiana Theatre's 30th Anniversary Season 1995-96 Mainstage Productions (Williams Theatre) "One Singular Sensation!" The Glass Menagerie Equus by Tennessee Williams by Peter Shaffer The classic This beautifully realized autobiographical drama of sensitive American play. A tender perceptions Is one of and haunting portrait of the most exciting and the Wingfield family visually arresting living In St. Louis during contemporary plays. A psychological the 1930s. A story with a magnificent mystery concerning a boy who has blinded breadth of spirit, told In a quiet voice, about six horses and a psychiatrist who must the great reach of small lives. Williams untangle the puzzle and alleviate the boy's called this a "memory play," and it Is a pain. A compelling and deeply moving memory of his mother and sister and his evening In the theatre that confronts the early years with them. This production will drives that lead human beings to crucify feature a guest artist In the role of Amanda, themselves. This production will contain Purdue-Indiana Theatre will offer special full nudity. school matinees of this production. For Feb. 23, 24, March 1, 2 at 8 p.m. Information call the Department of Theatre at 219-481-6551. A Chorus Line Oct. 6, 7,13,14 at 8 p.m.; school matinees, by James Kirkwood, Oct, 11,12 at 2:30 p.m. Nicholas Dante, Marvin Hamlisch, and Edward A Flea in Her Kleban Ear A brilliant, shimmering finale by Georges to our 30th anniversary Feydeau season! A Chorus Line is A very sexy, perhaps the greatest of comic valentine. contemporary American This play Is the musicals. It is certainly a celebration of the original bedroom farce featuring unfaithful American musical and the unsung heroes husbands, illicit liaisons, mistaken Identity, of the musical show—the chorus dancers, and a mad Spaniard running wild with a those valiant, overdedicated, underpaid, pistol. One of the most astounding and highly trained performers who back up the hilarious farces ever written. A delightful star. A Chorus Line is about competition evening of fun and mayhem that gallops and about anyone who has, at one time or madly about the stage and leaves the another, put their life on the line. We all audience breathless with surprise and compete for attention, promotion, approval, laughter. and love. This will be the first locally Nov. 17, 18, 24, 25 at 8 p.m. produced production of this show. April 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, 27 at 8 p.m. A community revolves around life . but when life ends, D.O. McComb & Sons is here to serve you, even if you just have a question. Funeral Homes 426-9494 Lakeside Park Foster Park 1140 Lake Ave. 6301 Fairfield Ave. mComb Maplewood Park Auburn Chapel A Sons 4017 Maplecrest 502 N. Main Auburn, IN Arena Dinner Tlieatre 1995- 1996 Season Chicago No Sex Please, We're British Sept. 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30 March 22, 23, 29, 30, April 12, 13 Arsenic and Old Lace Night Watch Oct. 20, 21, 27, 28, Nov. 3,4 May 3,4, 10,11,17, 18 Everybody Loves Opal Once Upon a Mattress Dec. 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16 June 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29, July 5, 6 Black Comedy Feb. 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24 For Reservations Call 219-493-1384 Arena Tlieatre, 719 Rockhill, Fort Wayne, IN 46802 Sctiool of Fine and Performing Arts Department of Thieatre presents a Purdue/Indiana Thieatre Mainstage Production (Williams Theatre) of ^ke ena0eue by Tennessee Williams directed by Larry L. Life Scenic Designer ,...» ,„,,„..Robert M. Koharchik Costume Designer , ,,„,.,Craig A. Humphrey Lighting Designer , .,,„,„..,Ryan M. Koharchik Stage Manager ,,„ ,„,,„,,,Klrby Voltz October 1995 Warning The photographing or sound recording of any performance or the possession of any device for such photographing or sound recording inside this theatre, without the written permission of the management, is prohibited by law. Violators may be punished by ejection, and violations may render the offender liable for money damages. in the Spotlight Featuring Lead Actress Ranae Butler Ranae Butler teaches theatre at Canterbury School and is an associate faculty member in the IPFW Department of Theatre. She received her M.F,A. in acting from Brandels University. She earned her B.A. In theatre from IPFW, where she will be remembered for her outstanding performances as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (1981), and Mary In The Children's Hour (1978), among many others. She has appeared as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Fort Wayne Civic Theatre. During the summer of '94, Butler appeared as Flo in PIT'S American Classics Summer Theatre Series production of Picnic and this past summer, she directed The Rainmai^er. Scenic Designer Robert l\/l. Koharciiik Robert M. Koharchik has spent the past year designing for Indianapolis Civic Theatre as well as the Red Barn Playhouse in Saugutuck, Mich. His design credits include Show Boat, The Giass Menagerie, The Pajama Game, The AH Nite Strut, Rumors, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Steei Magnoiias, Nunsense, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, i'm Not Rappaport, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Cabaret, and The Cmcibie. Some of Koharchik's designs have been exhibited at New York's Lincoln Center. This past summer he designed the sets for Damn Yankees and The Rainmaker for the American Classics Summer Theatre Series. Lighting Designer Ryan M. Koharchik Ryan M. Koharchik, after receiving his Master of Fine Arts in lighting design from Boston University, returned to the Midwest in spring 1993 as a guest faculty artist for Ball State University's 1993 summer season. Since that time, he has worked as a lighting designer in Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus (Ohio), and Michigan. Some of his credits include designing Tom Leopold's world premiere of Henry and the 2nd Gunman at the Griffin Theatre in Chicago, the New World Theatre's production of Death and the Maiden, the Red Barn Playhouse's 1994 summer season, and The Giass Menagerie at the Indianapolis Civic Theatre. Koharchik has also worked at the Goodman Theatre and Dance Kaleidoscope. Last season he designed lights for the Mainstage production of Romeo and Juliet and this past summer, Damn Yankees and The Rainmaker, for the American Classics Summer Theatre Series. Director's Notes "TENNESSEE AND ME" I think that many directors have their favorite playwrights. I also believe that when you have a favorite playwright, over the years you begin to consider him a close and personal friend. Tennessee Williams, as many people who know me are aware, is that playwright for me. I never met the man but I feel I have known him all of my adult life. That there are so many parallels in both of our lives, while mere coincidences, strike me as nevertheless uncanny. Several years ago on a trip to Key West, I asked a cab driver to take me to Tennessee Williams' home. He didn't know the address. Fortunately I did, but he couldn't understand why I wanted to go to an uninhabited house far off the beaten track and have him photograph me in front of the house. Similarly, many dismayed friends in New Orleans and New York continue to wonder why I want to be photographed in front of hotels and apartment buildings that were the haunts of Tennessee and his friends. I suppose it is my way of living somewhat vicariously and attempting to be a part of the life of a man I consider to be America's greatest playwright and my friend. Doing a Tennessee Williams play is a great honor and an enormous responsibility. In the 1950s, when the eminent theologian Paul Tillich was asked to define Existentialism, he replied, "Read the plays of Tennessee Williams." Williams believed that, as Tlie Glass Menagerie so beautifully reveals, human beings pity and love each other more deeply than they permit themselves to know. As he himself said, "Fear and evasion are the two little beasts that chase each other's tails in the revolving wire-cage of our nervous world." Williams teaches us through his plays that we have too successfully disguised from ourselves the intensity of our own feelings and the sensibility of our own hearts. A play by Williams always carries with it the social conscience of its writer. Williams felt, and exhibited in his work, that contemporary American society seemed to be no longer inclined to hold itself open to very explicit criticism from within ("...Their eyes had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery braille alphabet of a dissolving economy." Act I, Scene 1). He felt that society went to the harshest extreme of completely suppressing any dissident voices. This suppression, he believed, led to the fearful isolation of the individual being. In short, extreme spiritual dislocation. All of Williams' plays speak, indeed scream, of these issues. It is difficult and painful terrain for the theatre artist to venture into, and certainly not to be passed off or taken lightly when attempting one of Tennessee's plays. So, all of this and more, is why I love the man and the artist. He had an obsessive interest in human affairs, plus compassion and moral conviction.