Theater lovers, mark your calendars!
The annual SPAN 449 production is set for March 14, 15 and 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the School of Drama’s Cabaret Theater. In addition to actors from the Play Production class, there will be special appearances by distinguished faculty and staff members Anthony Geist, David Miles, and Joan Fox.
Students have developed and rehearsed their roles and have been involved all aspects of the production: costumes, props, dramaturgical research, lobby display, program and promotion. Professor Suzanne Peterson has been an indefatigable set builder.
There are two directors this year: Anna Witte (Memoria fotográfica, El censo), and Susan Finque, veteran director and theatre professional, and currently a doctoral student at the UW School of Drama (Historia de un flemón, El delantal blanco).
“This year we are putting on four short plays,” said Witte, “all having to do the rifts and barriers we build between each other through social, economic and cultural divisions.”
- In Memoria fotográfica, by Catalan dramatist Beth Escudé (2002), a young Muslim immigrant and an elderly Spanish woman who had to leave her country in search of work abroad, build a difficult friendship over a series of phone conversations.
- In Historia de un flemón, by Argentine playwright Osvaldo Dragún (1957), economic hardship is compounded by a health crisis that prevents the main character from peddling his wares.
- The comedy El delantal blanco by Chilean writer Sergio Vodanovic (1956) reflects on the artifice of social class, while simultaneously illuminating its staying power.
- Mexican dramatist Emilio Carballido wrote the delightful comedy El censo (1957) as an exercise for acting students. The arrival of a census worker causes turmoil in a clandestine dressmakers’ shop.
Thanks to the efforts of Professor Donald Gilbert Santamaría and Anna Witte who revived the yearly play production after a long hiatus, the play has become a yearly event.
On a special note: First Year Language program coordinator Joan Fox, who starred in 1982 in Egon Wolff’s Flores de Papel, directed by the renowned Diana Taylor from the Tisch School of the Arts, will be performing the role of the Anciana in Escudé’s play. She has performed in many plays, and is retiring next year.