HU Theatre Company announces 2005-2006 schedule
FOR RELEASE: Monday, August 1, 2005
Huntington, Ind. "The Huntington University Theatre Company has announced its schedule of events for the 2005-2006 season. This season's schedule features four new major productions, including Sure Thing, An Evening of David Ives plays,1940's Radio Hour, Shakesperience!, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as popular annual events. The HU Theatre season will officially begin on September 16 with Fresh Faces, an annual evening of scenes and songs showcasing its newest class of freshmen talent. From September 22-24 and October 1, HU Theatre will present Sure Thing, An Evening of David Ives plays. Directed by Mike Burnett, assistant professor of theatre, the evening will highlight a critically acclaimed, award-winning series of comedies by playwright David Ives.
From November 10 - 12, HU Theatre will take its audience back to the 1940s for the marvelously theatrical and award-winning musical, 1940's Radio Hour. Set on December 21, 1942, at a live broadcast of The Mutual Manhattan Variety Cavalcade from the Hotel Astor's Algonquin Room, the show evokes a different era of when the world was at war and pop music meant Strike Up the Band and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, both of which are in the show. Directed by David Shamburger, assistant professor of theatre, 1940's Radio Hour captures the spirit of a bygone era.
On December 2 and 3, Huntington University will hold its annual showcase of senior theatre majors in an evening of scenes and monologues in the MCA Studio Theatre. Then, from February 16 - 18, HU will start the spring semester season with Shakesperience! This simple concept show, developed by Dr. Jack Wann, former chair of the Theatre Department at Northwestern State University, fuses the Musical Theatre of today with the lively and robust theatre of Elizabethan England. Wann, with his former student and current HU theatre professor David Shamburger, will co-direct as musical theatre and Shakespeare are brought together to produce Shakesperience!
HU Theatre will continue to delve into Shakespeare with its final major production of the season, A Midsummer Night's Dream, from April 6 - 8. This well-known Shakespeare comedy is complicated right from the start. Four young people, Demetrius, Lysander, Helena, and Hermia, are caught in a tangled web of relationships. The King and Queen of Fairies, Oberon and Titania, are warring over a servant boy. Add in the mischief-maker Puck and a group of laborers preparing a play for the Duke's wedding, and the complications become fantastically funny.
The 2005-2006 Huntington University Theatre season will conclude with the popular annual One-Act Play Festival, held on April 28 and 29. Student directors will present a menagerie of works to showcase the talents of student designers, directors, and actors.
For more information about HU Theatre's 2005-2006 schedule, contact the Merillat Centre for the Arts Box Office at (260) 359-4261 or visit http://www.huntington.edu/mca/theatre.htm. Seating for all regular season productions is reserved. Ticket prices for regular season shows are $8.00 for adults and $6.00 for students, seniors, and HU faculty and staff.
