Theatre Arts + Dance Events
The Loyola University Department of Theatre Arts and Dance presents an invigorating season that challenges us through laughter and personal reflection. It is with excitement and anticipation that we bring to the 2008-2009 Loyola University stage a season that will provoke, intrigue, and entertain audiences.
Theatre Events | Dance Events |
"The Bug" by Richard Strand | Loyola Ballet Fall Concert |
Spinning into Butter | Loyola Ballet Spring Concert |
"The Scene" by Theresa Rebeck | Tickets: |
"The Trojan Women" by Euripides, | Group Rates Available, call |
The season kicks off with Richard Strand’s comedy "The Bug" directed by Benjamin Clement. The play combines Kafka’s eerie vision with a soulless world run by computers and the result is Strand’s comic nightmare of a play.
Dennis Post, an insecure, somewhat hysterical employee in the assembly department of Jericho corporation (maker of automation equipment), fearful that he might be relocated to St. Louis, is attempting to appeal to the mysterious Mark Kropp, the president of Jericho. But first, he must deal with three administrators of ascending rank whose dehumanized demeanor makes his task a formidable one. When Dennis discovers a bug in the elaborate computer system that seems to have a will of its own, the comfortable world of his three colleagues is shattered.
“As a mere bug in the system grows into a monster that shatters the bureaucratic façade, the subversive elements of Strand’s comedy fall into place…and you may never feel quite the same about your office again.” – The San Francisco Examiner
"The Bug" will run in the Loyola’s Lower Depths Theatre, 6363 St. Charles Avenue (Corner of Calhoun and St. Charles), on October 5, at 2 p.m., and October 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 general admission and $8 students, seniors, and children.
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"Spinning Into Butter" by Rebecca Gilman
Loyola’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance and director Laura Hope bring to the stage the hidden racism that may lurk in people’s hearts in Rebecca Gilman’s “Spinning into Butter.”
Set at a small mostly-white private liberal arts college in Vermont, “Spinning into Butter” explores the danger when society fails to confront the issues of racism and political correctness.
When one of the college’s few black students begins to receive hate and racial messages, the campus erupts with shock and mutual recrimination as faculty and students alike try to prove their own tolerance by condemning one another.
At the center of this chaos is Sarah Daniels, the dean of students. As the administration sponsors public race forums and the students begin activist groups, Daniels is forced to explore her own racist feelings. Her self-examination leads to some surprising discoveries and painful insights, the consequences of which even she cannot predict.
“This is a dangerous, searching, brilliant play, probing the self-inflicted wounds of a self-righteous civilization.” – London Sunday Times
“It’s a potent topic, and the playwright explores it with an admirable boldness as well as a nice leavening humor.” – Variety
“Spinning into Butter” will run in Loyola’s Marquette Theater, located on the second floor of Marquette Hall, 6363 St. Charles Avenue, on Nov. 9, at 2 p.m., and Nov. 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, at 8 p.m.
To celebrate the New Orleans Fringe Festival, tickets for this show are being discounted to $7 for general admission and $5 for students, seniors and children. Tickets can be purchased on the web at montage.loyno.edu or by calling the Loyola Box Office at (504) 865-2074.
Ballet director, Laura Zambrano and the Loyola Ballet presents a full-length presentation of the repertory students from the university program, in conjunction with levels 3 and 4 of the preparatory program.
The Loyola Ballet Fall Concert will run in Loyola’s Roussel Hall, 6363 St. Charles Ave. (corner of Calhoun and St. Charles), on November 21 and 22, at 8 p.m.
Director Artemis Preeshl opens the spring with Theresa Rebeck’s "The Scene," a thoroughly modern, sharply written variation of a fairly familiar marital triangle plot. "The Scene" is full of people in the scene, on the scene and desperate for the scene. It is a fierce, edgy, raw and scathing comedy.
Charlie, an out-of-work actor who may be past his prime, is spiritually famished and morally adrift searching for something real in the world he sees morphing into something more surreal. He knows the scene having been part of the entertainment industry for nearly two decades.
Enter fresh-faced, eager, ambitious Clea. She’s new to the scene — and just off the bus from Ohio. Clea and Charlie have a heated affair that eventually dissipates leaving Charlie with empty pockets and more emotionally, spiritually and morally adrift than ever before. What once seemed absurd and surreal suddenly becomes all too real for Charlie’s lost soul.
Rebeck has gone on to write several Hollywood scripts as well as episodes of television’s "NYPD Blue," "Third Watch" and "Law and Order: Criminal Intent." "The Scene" is Rebeck's sharp-witted, sharp-elbowed comedy about the savage economies of sex and show business in contemporary Manhattan.
Rebeck can make adultery hideous and hilarious at the same time!– The New York Times
"The Scene" is an entertaining send up of our celebrity conscious culture. It gives new meaning to the little in the ever fashionable little black dress. – curtainup.com
"The Scene" will run in Loyola’s Lower Depths Theatre, 6363 St. Charles Avenue (Corner of Calhoun and St. Charles), on February 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, at 8 p.m. and February 15, at 2 p.m.
"The Trojan Women" by Euripides, adapted by Ellen McLaughlin
Fulbright Scholar and guest artist Arben Kumbaro will close the theatre season by directing "The Trojan Women." Kumbaro, was born in Tirana, Albania and has participated in a variety of international seminars, conferences and theatre festivals in Poland, Prague, Skopje, Malta, Bucharest, Germany and Ireland. He has completed post-graduate studies and received a degree in Philosophy and History of Theatre. He also has a degree from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Tirana.
Ellen McLaughlin’s adaptation of Euripides’ "The Trojan Women" is a white-hot version of a Greek tragedy, the mournful, in which the women of a fallen Troy await their enslavement. McLaughlin wants us to look hard at the face of the enemy, as the Greeks did, and perhaps catch glints of our own reflection.
Abandoned in the shadow of their ruined city, a group of women struggle to comprehend the horrors and devastation brought upon them by gods and men. Ellen McLaughlin's powerful contemporary adaptation of Euripides' classic play examines the complexities of the female identity and the triumph of the human spirit.
"The Trojan Women" is a re-imagined production of Euripides' classic written in 417 BC. With its crisp, direct dialogue, Kumbaro and his cast present a new stylized incarnation of a Greek tragedy.
"The Trojan Women" will run in Loyola’s Marquette Theatre, 6363 St. Charles Avenue, on March 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, at 8 p.m. and March 22, at 2 p.m.
Ballet director, Laura Zambrano choreographs the Spring Concert building from the Fall Concert to include the dancers of the repertory class, as well as all levels of the Loyola’s Ballet Preparatory program.
The Loyola Ballet Spring Concert will run in Loyola’s Roussel Hall, 6363 St. Charles Ave. (corner of Calhoun and St. Charles), on April 24 and 25, at 8 p.m.
Senior Project One-Act Festival
The Senior Project One-Act Festival, produced and directed by the senior class, will round out each semester. The Fall Senior Project One-Act Festival will take place on December 3 and 4, at 7 p.m., and the Spring Senior Project One-Act Festival on April 19, 20, 23, 24, at 7 p.m.
The festival will take place in Loyola’s Lower Depths Theatre and is free and open to the pubic.
Theatre at Loyola originated with the Thespian Troupe in 1849. Continuing a long tradition of dedication to the training of the future theatre artist and audiences of tomorrow, Loyola University Theatre focuses on the training of the undergraduate student while offering diverse and exceptional theatre entertainment to the New Orleans community.
