This week SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts announced its 2005-2006 theater season. The school looks to continue the tradition of high quality performances the program has put on in past years. The schedule is comprised of both the Main Stage and Margo Jones “Second Stage” seasons, which will each present four productions. The student and faculty run plays will highlight critically acclaimed playwrights, including Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov, and special directors including Distinguished Artist-in-Residence Stan Wojewodski, Jr. and guest director Henry Woronicz.
Starting off the Main Stage season will be Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt,” which will run Oct. 6-9 and 13-16 in the Bob Hope Theatre. Conceived originally as a poem and influenced by a Norwegian folktale, “Peer Gynt” presents a story meant to be both a fantastical adventure and social satire of the 19th century that remains relevant today. Onstage at the Greer Garson Theatre on Nov. 10-13 and 17-20 will be Chekhov’s “Three Sisters.” This tragicomedy, first performed in 1910, follows the story of three sisters searching for meaning in their lives. Dealing with issues of early modern life and the decline of the privileged class in early 20th century Russia, themes common in Chekhov’s work, this play continues to be a stunning work of art. The season takes a more comical turn in the spring with “The Underpants” by Carl Sternheim, Feb. 23-26 and March 2-5, and “She Stoops to Conquer” by Olivier Goldsmith, April 20-23 and 27-30. “The Undepants” is the hilarious adaptation by actor/write Steve Martin of the classic 1910 Germanic play about a rigid bureaucrat and his young wife, who run into some problems with undergarments while watching the Kaiser’s military parade. “She Stoops to Conquer,” directed by Stan Wojewodski Jr., is a comedy involving an arranged marriage, miscommunication and mistaken identities.
The Margo Jones “Second Stage” presents a more somberly themed season with three dramatic works that include subjects of loneliness in small town America, injustices in a real-world Midwestern slaughterhouse and a collection of Greek tragedies.
Marking the 50th anniversary of Margo Jones’ premature death, the “Second Stage” season opens September 28 – October 2 with William Inge’s “Picnic.” Jones launched Inge’s career when she produced his first play in Dallas. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play is set in 1950s Middle America and focuses on the impact made by a vagrant in a small town. To further honor the legacy of Jones, guest director Henry Woronicz will present the play “in the round,” a technique that Jones pioneered. November 16-20 will see the production of contemporary and award-winning playwright Naomi Wallace’s “Slaughter City.” Set in a Kentucky meat processing plant and based on real events, “Slaughter City” questions the meaning of everyday life through a socially and politically charged lens. Three selections from “The Greeks,” by John Barton and Kenneth Cavender, will join the season March 1-5 to tell the stormy outcome of the Trojan War. Also included in the Margo Jones “Second Stage” season is “New Visions, New Voices,” which will mark the 12th anniversary of Meadow’s spring playwriting festival and close the 2005-2006 “Second Stage” season. Produced by Associate Professor of Theatre Gretchen Elizabeth Smith, “New Visions, New Voices” will showcase original full-length works acted, directed and written solely by students. All plays in the “Second Stage” season will be performed in the Margo Jones Theatre.
Ticket subscriptions for the Main Stage season begin at $20. Individual tickets for all productions are $12 for adults, $9 for seniors and $6 for students. Main Stage subscribers will receive $2 off every Margo Jones season ticket purchased. For more information, call the Meadows Ticket Office at 214-768-2787.
