The Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill proudly presents its 2005-2006
season of performance events
with thanks to our partners:
StreetSignsCenter for Literature and Performance
Theatre Or
Ride Again Productions
Wordshed Productions
Untimely Productions
Work representing our distinguished faculty…
The Miser
September 1-18
Translated and Adapted by Elisabeth Lewis Corley
Directed by Joseph Megel
StreetSigns Center
Swain Studio 6
For more information call 919-843-3865
In Corley’s fresh translation, this fast-paced version of Moli ère’s classic comedy of greed versus love focuses on the whirling masks that hide, reveal, disguise, and transform characters and relationships. Premiere.
Women’s Minyan
October 14-30
By Naomi Ragen
Directed by Joseph Megel
StreetSigns Center & Theatre Or
Swain Studio 6
For more information call 919-843-3865
Based on a true story, Chana flees her ultra-orthodox community in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem, leaving behind her twelve children, and carrying with her a terrible secret. When she returns, she convenes a “secular minyan,” a court of ten women, to judge her fitness to see her children. North American premiere of the longest running play ever to be presented at the National Theatre in Jerusalem.
The Christmas Letters
November 9-December 11
From the book by Lee Smith
Adapted and Directed by Paul Ferguson
Ride Again Productions
Swain Studio 6
For more information call 919-962-4941
A new narrative musical adaptation of Lee Smith’s novel with songs by the Nashville team of Karen Pell, Tommy Goldsmith, and Tom House, The Christmas Letters tells the funny and moving story of three generations of women in an evolving Southern family—and mixes in a batch of great recipes, too!
Water Rites
March 2-12
Developed and Directed by D. Soyini Madison
Swain Studio 6
For more information call 919-962-4944
A multi-media reflection on the politics and poetics of water, concerned with how it is becoming an urgent problem in our world. Water Rites asks two fundamental questions: What would we do without access to water? And does anyone have the right to own it?
Vanishing Marion
April 6-23
By Jeanmarie Williams
Directed by Joseph Megel
StreetSigns Center
For more information call 919-843-3865
A prep school in suburban New York is a minefield for a scholarship girl from New Jersey. Vanishing Marion tracks one frighteningly bright young girl through her travails with a disintegrating neighborhood, family, and the perils of a perfect academy toward her way out. A World Premiere.
And Wordshed representing the exciting work of our graduate students and seniors . . .
For more information see http://www.unc.edu/wordshed or email wordshed@unc.edu
How We Are Hungry
September 8-10
From the book by Dave Eggers
Adapted and Directed by Bo Odom
Wordshed Productions
The Martha Nell Hardy Performance Space, Bingham 203
Dave Eggers’ collection of short stories is brought to life for the stage. Of How We Are Hungry, Joanna Rose of the Oregonian writes: “These stories are not so much about what the characters long for, but the fact that they long at all; they are empty in some important place in the heart, and they wish it were not so.”
The Time Traveller’s Wife
October 6-9, Preview October 5
From the book by Audrey Niffenegger
Adapted and Directed by Lauren Shouse
Original Score and Musical Direction by Shannon O’Neill
Wordshed Productions
The Martha Nell Hardy Performance Space, Bingham 203
Adapted from Audrey Niffenegger’s bestselling novel, this narrative theatre production explores the victory of love over time. Henry DeTamble has a genetic disorder that causes him to travel into his past and future. This story of his criss-crossed meetings with Clare Abshire redefines the conventions of love, memory, and time.
Elements: An Enchantment
January 12-15 & 19-21
Developed and directed by Annissa Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson
Untimely Productions and Wordshed
Swain Studio 6
For more information call 919-619-1037
Journey through an artfully constructed world unlike any you’ve experienced before. Engage all of your senses and discover some you never knew you had! Step right up to experience a calvalcade of delights with potentially delirious results! An inter-corporeal vortex . . . Do you dare??
Exposition
February 9-12
Written and Directed by Allan Maule
Wordshed Productions
Swain Studio 6
A young man wakes up in a psychiatric hospital without any recollection of his life. Exposition is the story of Adam’s struggle to discover who he was and whether he can ever be that person again.
I Love Beach Music
April 27-30
Written and Directed by Lauren Shouse
Musical Arrangement by Shannon O’Neill
Wordshed & the Carrboro ArtsCenter
location tba
This staged reading brings the history of Beach Music and the Shag Dance to life through a modern, musical love story. With a score from such Beach Music greats as The Chairman of the Board, Embers, the Catalinas, the Band of Oz, and the Tams, the story follows a northern boy entering a southern world and experiencing the dance that will change his life.
And look forward to a concert production...
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
Fall 2006
From the book by Studs Terkel
Adapted by Derek Goldman