March 22, 2007

Student-directed 'Lovers' to wrap up the studio series
Jason E. Weber
weberj@marietta.edu

The Studio Series at Marietta College is coming to a close this weekend with the final student-directed production of the season before the annual one-act festival at the end of the semester. This last production, collectively titled “Lovers: Winners and Losers,” is two one-act plays by renowned Irish playwright, Brian Friel, dealing with love relationships in Ireland. The plays open tonight at 8:00 p.m. in Studio 101 at the Hermann Fine Arts Center.

Friel’s pairing, originally produced in 1967 at The Gate Theatre in Dublin, is a look at love from two different perspectives. The first play, “Winners,” deals with a young couple, Joe (Kellen Boyle) and Mag (Sara Raddell), on the verge of marriage. During the course of the play they promise each other that their future together will be a happy one even though their circumstances may preclude that from happening. However, as the two narrators (Neil Pickering and Kim Page) tell us from the very beginning they happily drown, thus saving themselves from an unhappy fate and allowing them to end their lives as the winners.

Continuing a mildly anti-marriage sentiment, the second play, “Losers,” features a married couple, Andy (Patrick Simone) and Hanna (Britney Koser), whose passion and love is no less strong than that of the “winners,” but is stifled by the challenges and compromises of married life. Over the course of the play we see their bliss melt away to give way to the unhappiness of their marriage and their entrapment. This play also features Crystal Carpenter as Mrs. Wilson and Audrey Mihilacki as Cissy Cassidy.

Both of the plays in this evening of relationship examination are directed by senior theatre major, Terry C. Doane, whose other directing credits at Marietta College include Bertolt Brecht’s one-act, “The Informant” in April of 2005 and an original one-act play by fellow Marietta College senior, Jason E. Weber, “December 32nd,” last February. This production is his capstone project in Theatre.

“QUOTE ON THE PLAY FROM TERRY C. DOANE.”

The play runs this weekend only, and opens tonight at 8:00 p.m. The production continues tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m., Saturday night at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. All of the performance will be held in Studio 101 in the Hermann Fine Arts Center. Tickets are $6.00 for adults, $5.00 for seniors, $4.00 for children and students and free to all Marietta College Students, Faculty, Staff, and Employees. For reservations or more information please call the box office at (740) 376-4678.