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2016 - 2017 Season

 
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September 9-10, 2016

FusionFest III
A 24-Hour Play Festival

Starting at 7:30 pm Friday
Performance Saturday 7:30 pm

What happens when entire plays are created, rehearsed, staged, and performed for an audience – all in the span of 24 hours? 

Just about anything.  And it’s a whole lot of fun to watch!

Welcome to FusionFest III – Monmouth College Department of Theatre’s third annual 24 hour play festival!

Here’s how it works:  At 7:30 PM on Friday, September 9, a group of playwrights will each randomly draw a team of actors, a director, and a random phrase.  The intrepid (and soon to be sleep-deprived) playwrights then have a mere 12 hours to write a short play featuring their actors and, at some point in the dialogue, their random phrase.  At 7:30 AM, the playwrights hand off their brand-new creations, and the director and actors then have until 7:30 PM to rehearse, stage, and memorize it all before performing before a live audience. 

Hilarity and hijinks are bound to ensue as part of this chaotic and exciting theatrical event! 

Fusion Theatre

 



October 27-30, 2016
Oedipus Rex
by
Sophocles

7:30 pm Thurs.-Sat.
2 pm-Sun.



Cast of Characters

Playbill (pdf)

Photos of Production

Scenic Design Photos

Press Release

Thebes is a city—a city in trouble. It all seems tied up in the murder of Laius, the previous king. Lucky for the citizens, Oedipus is in charge now, and he’ll go to any length to solve the mystery. Who’s to blame? Does Creon, his brother-in-law, want Oedipus out of the way? Will the fortune teller, Tiresias, ever reveal what he truly knows? Did the shepherd put the kibosh on the king? What do we really know about Oedipus’s wife, the fatally beautiful Jocasta? Is she somehow more than what she seems? And with a troubled family past, and a curse hanging over his head, should Oedipus be looking even closer to home, or is he too blind to see the truth? This play by Sophocles has been called “the first detective story,” and here Greek tragedy crashes into the gritty pictures and colorful words from film noir, in a shadowy, dangerous world of detectives, secrets, and femme fatales.

directed by Ron Zank

Wells Theater

 

 

   
November 17-20,2016
The Crucible

by Arthur Miller

7:30 pm Thurs.-Sat.
2 pm-Sun.

Cast of Characters

Playbill (pdf)

Photos of Production

Press Release

Widely regarded as one of the greatest American plays of all time, The Crucible was originally written as a parable of 1950’s McCarthyism. As with the alleged witches of Salem, suspected Communists were encouraged to confess and identify other Communist sympathizers as means of escaping punishment. Many of those accused of Communism suffered loss of employment and/or destruction of their careers; some even suffered imprisonment. Miller's ideas resonate in the embattled world of today's political contexts with strong polarization between the ideologies of parties regarding religious freedom, social policies and fear of the unknown.

directed by Ellen Johnson

Fusion Theatre


   
April 6-9, 2017
Meet Me in St. Louis

songs by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane; Book by Hugh Wheeler

7:30 pm Thurs.-Sat.
2 pm-Sun.

Cast of Characters

Playbill (pdf)

Photos of Production

Press Release

Meet Me in St. Louis is a rare treasure in the musical theatre, and is based on the heartwarming movie.

Join the Smith family at the 1904 World’s Fair, and see how their love and respect for each other is tempered with the genuine humor that can only be generated by such a special family.

Memorable musical numbers include The Boy Next Door, A Raving Beauty, The Trolley Song, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Whenever I’m with You and A Day in New York.

directed by Vanessa Campagna

Wells Theater

 


April 27-30, 2017
7:30 pm Thurs.-Sat.
2 pm-Sun.

The Flattering Word
by George Kelly

The adventures of an actor on tour, resting upon the intriguing theme that you can cure a person of his prejudice by extending him the flattery of comparing him to an actor." That leaves out a very important piece of the plot...it is built upon the theme that...a person can be cured of his prejudice..."against actors"...by extending him the flattery of comparing him to an actor. In this instance the prejudiced one is a clergyman, and a touring actor, with the help of the clergyman's wife, cures him.

Cast of Characters

Playbill (pdf)

Photos of Production

directed by Kyrsten Hume

 

The Man of infinite Sadness
by Brian Tanen

An examination of longing and the quest for self-knowledge, laced with gentle humor. Two women, co-workers who, during lunch on their office rooftop, observe a man who comes there every day, crying like a baby. Both are taken with the crying man's evident sensitivity and begin to fantasize about him.

Cast of Characters

Playbill (pdf)

directed by Amanda Grissom

Fusion Theatre

 
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