Fall Production
Aristophanes’ Lysistrata
directed by Glen Gourley
October 17-20, 2001
Fine Arts Theatre
Hyman Fine Arts Center
Francis Marion University
This bawdy and irreverent modern adaptation and translation, setting the play during the ‘roaring twenties,’ is not a light evening out for prudes. As is to be expected from this ancient comedic form, most of the sexual innuendo that you think you surmise in virtually every line is actually there. Athenian women, fed up with the Peloponnesian War, barricade themselves in the Acropolis and go on a sex strike to force their husbands to vote for peace with Sparta.
The cast of nearly thirty includes students who have come through our local school systems, while others have come from Maryland, Florida, San Diego and Trinidad. The play is under the direction of associate professor A. Glen Gourley. Scenic design is by associate professor David Granath with costume design by assistant professor Amy Sherwood and lighting design by Granath.
Winter Production
The Boys Next Door
by Tom Griffith
directed by D. Keith Best
February 20-23, 2002
Fine Arts Theatre
Hyman Fine Arts Center
Francis Marion University
The Francis Marion University Theatre’s winter production of the 2001-2002 season, to run February 20-23, is the Tom Griffith’s The Boys Next Door. Under the direction of Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Keith Best, the audience is invited to view the world through the eyes of four mentally handicapped men living in supervised housing. In their world, ordinarily trivial events can become monumental — sometimes quite funny, occasionally poignant. The play is a learning experience in how blindly we take so much in our lives for granted.
ARNOLD WIGGINS: CHRISTOPHER BLACKWELL
LUCIEN P. SMITH: COREY PATTERSON
JACK: DAVID SISTARE
NORMAN BULANSKY: BRAD SPONIC
BARRY KLEMPER: JASON ABERNATHY
MR. HEDGES: GREG WILLIAMS
MRS. FREMUS: TIFFANY WILLIAM
MRS. WARREN: SUSAN CAPPS
SHEILA: CARRIE “PAGE” HORTON
CLARA: I’ISHA TYLER
MR. CORBIN: MARK G. BALOYA
MR. KLEMPER: NICK SHARRETT
SENATOR CLARKE: NICOLE LACAVA
Spring Production
Story Theatre
adapted by Paul Sills
directed by Glen Gourley
April 10-13, 2002
Fine Arts Theatre
Hyman Fine Arts Center
Francis Marion University
The Francis Marion University Theatre’s spring production of the 2001-2002 season, to run April 10-13, is the Paul Sills’ Story Theatre. Under the direction of Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Glen Gourley and assisted by Jessica Alison, this play is an adaptation of selections from Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Aeosop’s Fables featuring such stories as “Henny Penny,” “The Golden Goose,” “The Fisherman and his Wife,” and “Venus and the Cat,” just to name a few. These dramatizations, accessible to both children and adults, will be presented much in the style of the commedia dell arte’ traveling players.
The cast will include Jason Abernathy, Brent Ard, Latisha Bowens, Susan Capps, Terry Covington, Carol Graziani, Charles Julg, Sarah Thorowgood, Terrell Washington and Greg Williams. They will stage the show as though they have just “pulled into town” and are performing for a gathering audience.