The Observer, October 5, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 6
Case theater department offers myriad of shows this fall
Here on Case's campus, there are a multitude of theater groups, each putting on at least one show a semester. For any student here who is interested in theater, there is definitely a group on campus to join to refine your acting chops.
Players' Theatre Group (PTG) puts on three shows per semester. The first show, which ran last weekend, was Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and was about how "a strict Catholic upbringing can mess you up for life," according to PTG president Tim Koch. The next PTG show is The Dining Room, running Nov. 2-4. The show depicts scenes of various families, in different time periods, all in possession of the same dining room set.
During the first weekend of December, PTG will host a "New Playwright's Festival" for which any undergrad can submit a 10-30-minute original play. The group will then perform staged readings of the plays, which may be considered for future productions.
Players' Theatre Group is an entirely student-run organization. "It gives you opportunities to do things that you never would otherwise," including building sets and working tech, according to Koch. The group is open to anyone, not just theater majors.
Next semester's shows have yet to be determined; submissions will be accepted from directors at the end of the semester and the schedule will be finalized over winter break. Auditions will be held early next semester for those shows.
Eldred, the educational theater group, produces two shows a semester which are carefully selected to provide enough roles for students as well as a variety of performance styles. The first show, What the Butler Saw, which opens tonight and runs for the next two weekends, is a farce that requires an added skill set of its actors. "They have to be able to deal with physical comedy as well as the language," said Catherine Albers, director of undergraduate studies for the theatre department.
The Shadow of a Gunman, the second fall show, is a little-known play that "forces the students to go beyond their own world," according to Albers. This includes giving students the chance to practice their Irish accents.
Eldred productions are open to all students, regardless of major. Auditions for spring semester's shows, The Glass Menagerie and Tartuffe, will be held Nov. 12 and 13.
Cedar Player's fall production is God, by Woody Allen. This play-within-a-play follows two Greeks, an author and an actor, trying to figure out the ending to a play before they realize that they're in one themselves. God "takes the play within a play idea to extreme and makes it really funny," according to sophomore Sarah Franjoine.
The group, now in its third year, is based in the Cedar Residential College and is open only to freshman participation, with previous members (now sophomores) in charge. The fall show will be produced entirely by members of the CRC, but the spring shows will include members of the other residential colleges.
"The purpose is to get freshmen involved and get them to act in a group that's not too high stress," said Franjoine.
Case's musical theater group, Footlighters, will be performing Damn Yankees next weekend, Oct. 11-13. The show is "a comedy about the glory days of baseball (and, of course, making a deal with the devil, resisting the underworld's best seductress, and like all good musicals, true love!)," according to Footlighters president Bria DuPont.
The spring show will be Chicago, the famous musical-turned-movie about celebrity criminal Roxie Hart.
Footlighters, now in its 10th year, features entirely student-run productions from directing to choreography to costuming. Auditions for these performances are open to any member of the Case community.
