Release Date: October 18, 2005

MONMOUTH, Ill. — The Monmouth College Crimson Masque will continue its 2005-2006 theater season with Oliver Goldsmith’s groundbreaking comedy, “She Stoops to Conquer.” Performances are Nov. 3-5 at 7:30 p.m., and Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. in the college’s Wells Theater.

Tickets are $4 for MC students, faculty and staff; $5 for other students and senior citizens and $6 for adults. They may be reserved by contacting Bill Wallace at 309-457-2374 or by e-mailing him at billw@monm.edu.

“She Stoops to Conquer” has had a loyal following since the farce entered the English repertory in 1773. It is brimming with what has come to be expected from English comedies: verbal wit, sexual escapades, droll philosophy and grand pretensions. Goldsmith’s work is the foundation for later plays by Oscar Wilde, Tom Stoppard, Noel Coward and Alan Ayckbourne.

Chris Walljasper, a junior from Donnellson, Iowa, plays Squire Hardcastle, whose second wife, played by junior Kelsey Graham of Colchester, is determined that her spoiled and not too brilliant son, Tony Lumpkin, played by freshman Paul Bridges of Bettendorf, Iowa, marry her niece, Constance Neville, played by senior Holly Trotter of Elk Grove Village, so that she can keep Miss Neville’s fortune of jewels in the family.

The young people, however, have other plans, especially Miss Neville, who is secretly pledged to Mr. Hastings, played by sophomore Ed Slonim of Buffalo Grove.

Hardcastle also has plans for his own daughter, Kate, played by sophomore Danielle Prince of Morris, to marry the son of his old friend, Charles Marlow, played by senior Mike Wilmoth of Clinton.

But young Marlow, played by MC’s costume director Tim Holmes of Galesburg, is socially inept in the presence of ladies of his own status. He is, however, a master of clever repartee when talking to bar maids. Young Marlow and Hastings travel together to visit Hardcastle, but lose their way and stop at an inn to ask directions. There, Tony sets the comedy rolling by directing the weary travelers to his father’s house, in the deception that it is an inn.

When they arrive, young Marlow is tricked into believing that Hardcastle’s daughter is a bar maid and promptly falls for her. What ensues is a cavalcade of mistaken identities, pompous sparring, pratfalls and ludicrous misunderstandings.

The cast is rounded out by sophomore Kevin Litwin of Burr Ridge, freshman John McElligott of Freeport, junior Stephanie Haas of Geneva, junior Mary O’Connor of Joliet and sophomore Anna Prohaska of Chicago. Prince doubles as assistant director and is aided by freshman Lindsay Brogan of Elk Grove.

“She Stoops to Conquer” is directed and designed by Doug Rankin, professor of communication and theater arts.