Academic Season
"The Imaginary Invalid"
By Moliere, adapted by Constance Congdon
Directed by Tress Kurzym
October 27, 28, 29, 30 at 7:30pm.Oct. 31 at 2:00 p.m.
Dunham Hall Theater
Love is funny. Love is trickery. Love is … smelly? It's certainly a merry-go-round of misplaced desires and hidden agendas in Constance Congdon's fresh and hilarious new take on Molière's skewering of a health-care crisis from an entirely different century. To quell his growing pile of medical bills, Monsieur Argan, a chronic hypochondriac, will go to any length to marry his daughter off to a doctor. Of course, his daughter has other ideas. A narcotic cocktail of romantic triangles, double entendres, and mistaken identities ensues, promising to leave you gasping, giggling, and possibly … in stitches.
"Dance in Concert: Kanashibari"
Conceived, Choreographed and Directed by Kristin Best-Kinscherff and Omar Olivas
November 10, 11, 12, 13 @ 7:30 pm; Nov 14 @ 2:00pm
Metcalf Theater
Kanashibari is an evening length, multi-media dance piece exploring the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. Inspired by the art of Nicolas Bruno, interviews with sleep paralysis patients, and the different phases of sleep, dance is explored through using a fusion of genres.
"Everybody"
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Kathryn Bentley
December 1-4 at 7:30 and December 5 at 2:00
Dunham Hall Theater
This modern riff on the fifteenth-century morality play Everyman follows Everybody as they journey through life’s greatest mystery—the meaning of living. Finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. “This is theatre rather unlike anything you might have seen…unusual, unconventional and eye-opening…Everyman is no barrel of laughs, being a morality play about death. EVERYBODY tells the same tale, with equal emotional heft; but it is not only provocative and involving, it is also funny. Wildly funny, in fact.” - Huffington Post.
"Black Theater Workshop"
SIUE Department of Theater and Dance, Black Theater Workshop, SIUE Black Studies Program, and Arts & Issues present:
NU-World Contemporary Danse Theatre - From Jimmy, to America: An Ode to James Baldwin
Devised in artistic collaboration with Jacqueline Thompson, Bashir Page-Sanders and Christopher Page-Sanders
February 11-12 at 7:30 PM and February 13 at 2:00 PM
Metcalf Theater (Campus Parking Lot F)
Inspired by the life, words, and work of James Baldwin, this production centers around the contemporary view of the Black Experience. Separated into three movements, From Jimmy, to America: an Ode to James Baldwin, brings to light the themes of self identity, sexuality, and racial equity in which Mr. Baldwin's richly complex and nuanced words become life and moving art. With a varied score featuring music that ranges from classical to jazz to gospel to hip-hop, and everything in between, the spirit of James Baldwin lives in this production as actors and dancers explore these topics together.
This event is free. Walk-up admission at the door.
For more information call the SIUE Theater and Dance Box Office at 618-650-2773 or visit Arts & Issues.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency and Arts Midwest through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and thanks to Arts & Issues media sponsors: The Alestle, WSIE and The Edge,
"Life Sucks"
By Aaron Posner, Sort of Adapted from "Uncle Vanya" by Anton Chekhov
Directed by Geovonday Jones
February 23, 24, 25, 26 @ 7:30 and February 27 @ 2:00
Dunham Hall Theater
In this brash reworking of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, a group of old friends, ex-lovers, estranged in-laws, and lifelong enemies gather to grapple with life’s thorniest questions—and each other. What could possibly go wrong? Incurably lustful and lonely, hapless and hopeful, these seven souls collide and stumble their way towards a new understanding that LIFE SUCKS! Or does it? “LIFE SUCKS is altogether wise, profoundly humane, hilarious, quirky, endearing and, in countless clever ways, brilliantly faithful to its source…Posner has managed to find his own voice in the process, bringing a playful, far from cynical, fourth-wall-piercing originality to the story…” - Chicago Sun-Times.
"Rent"
by Jonathan Larson
Directed by Marc Schapman, Choreographed by Kristin Best-Kinscherff
April 20, 21, 22, 23 @ 7:30 and April 24 @ 2:00
Dunham Hall Theater
Jonathan Larson’s musical, loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La Bohème,” won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Musical and the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, friends in Manhattan’s East Village struggle to build the lives of their dreams. Pennilessness, drug abuse, HIV/AIDS, social tension, and political unrest, among other hardships, challenge the group physically and emotionally. Facing the problems head on, they make personal self-discoveries and find what really matters most in life.
