The University of
Delawares Resident Ensemble Players 10th anniversary season brings a
celebration of seven plays to the stage, from laugh-out-loud comedies,
to sizzling classic dramas, to the premiere of a new play torn from the
headlines and written by REP company member Michael Gotch.
Opening the season in the intimate Studio Theatre in the Roselle Center for the Arts is the laugh-out-loud comedy Lettice and Lovage by
Peter Shaffer, running Sept. 13 through Oct. 7. An unexpected
friendship develops between a vivacious tour guide who plays fast and
loose with historical facts and the stick-in-the-mud bureaucrat who has
her fired. This mad comedy delights in the importance of friends,
history and the occasional teeny, tiny white lie.
Next door in the Thompson Theatre, Conor McPhersons dark Irish comedy The Seafarer, plays
Sept. 20 through Oct. 7. Its a devil of a holiday when Sharky Harkin
returns to Dublin for a whisky-soaked Christmas Eve of companionship
and poker. When a mysterious stranger asks to be dealt in, Sharky
realizes there is more on the line than just a few pounds in this
ultimate high-stakes game.
The season continues with Alan Ayckbourns Woman in Mind, Nov. 8 through Dec. 2. Described
as the comic poet of middle-class life, Ayckbourn creates a black
comedy of domestic madness. Susans dreary married life is upended after
an accident in the garden. Suddenly she finds she has the ideal husband
and family but now cant tell if this is the perfect dream or a perfect
nightmare.
The REP ushers in 2019 with the premiere of Minor Fantastical Kingdoms, written
by REP company member Michael Gotch, Jan. 24 through Feb. 10. A young
couple builds an off-the-grid, tiny house in an isolated mountain
paradise to get away from all the emotional, financial and political
upheaval in the world, or so they think. When family, friends and a few
quirky neighbors join them for a Fourth of July barbecue, their peaceful
redwood glen explodes into a forest of recriminations and revelations.
A sizzling courtroom drama takes the stage when the REP presents the classic play Inherit the Wind by
Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, March 7-29. Based on the famous
Scopes Monkey trial where a high school teacher was arrested for
including Darwins theories of evolution in his curriculum, two of the
greatest legal giants of the 20th century face off in a struggle that
continues to this day: the conflict between scientific fact and
religious belief.
Mauritius, Theresa Rebecks cunningly crafted thriller about
deceit, double-crosses and stamps, runs April 17 through May 12 in the
Studio Theatre. A cat-and-mouse game plays out when a pair of
half-siblings tangle with three, high-stakes collectors over an
inheritance of the crown jewel of philately the 1847 one- and
two-penny Mauritius stamps, worth millions if authentic.
Closing out the season in the Thompson Theatre is August Wilsons Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning masterpiece Fences,
playing April 25 through May 12. Troy Maxson, a former star of the
Negro Baseball League is now a trash collector with little future.
Embittered and resentful, Troy builds both literal and figurative fences
around his wife and son as he comes to terms with his past
disappointments in this poetic and powerful challenge to the American
dream.
Season at a Glance
Lettice and Lovage by Peter Shaffer, Sept. 13 through Oct. 7.
The Seafarer by Conor McPherson, Sept. 20 through Oct. 7.
Woman in Mind by Alan Ayckbourn, Nov. 8 through Dec. 2
Minor Fantastical Kingdoms by Michael Gotch, Jan. 24 through February 10
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, March 7 through 24
Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck, April 17 through May 12
Fences by August Wilson, April 25 through May 12
Tickets
A complete schedule, directions and information on purchasing tickets can be found at www.rep.udel.edu or by calling the REP box office at 302-831-2204.
Seven-, five- and four-show subscription packages for the REP season offer
substantial savings with special subscriber benefits. They can be
purchased through the REP box office in the Roselle Center for the Arts
in person, by mail or by phone at 302-831-2204. Information can be
found online at www.rep.udel.edu.
General public single tickets range from $27 to $32; discounts are
available for students, seniors and University of Delaware faculty and
staff.
REP productions are made possible, in part, by a grant from the
Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and
supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National
Endowment for the Arts.
About the REP
The Resident Ensemble Players (REP) is a professional theatre company
located at the University of Delaware. The REPs mission is to engage
audiences throughout the tri-state region with frequent productions of
outstanding classic, modern and contemporary plays performed in a wide
variety of styles that celebrate and demonstrate the range and breadth
of each resident actor in this ensemble of nationally respected stage
actors who have been trained in the same way. The REP is committed to
create future audiences for live theatre by offering its productions at
low prices that enable and encourage the attendance of everyone in the
region, regardless of income.
Article by Nadine Howatt
