2009-2010 School of Performing Arts Season
How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying
Sept. 24-26, 7:30 p.m. and Sept. 27, 2:00 p.m.
Wilner Auditorium
The original Broadway production won 7 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical The musical also won the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Smart and funny, H2$ satirizes Big Business, libidinous executives, and the manifold corporate shenanegins that have made such depressing news of late. WSU Musical Theatre is please to announce that Wayne Bryan will be the guest director, courtesy of the Dorothy and Harold Hauck Fund.
Medea (Photos)
Oct. 22 – 24, 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 25, 2:00 p.m.
Wilner Auditorium
Euripides' Medea is the classic Greek play based on the myth of Jason of the Argonauts and Medea. The story is of Medea's revenge against her husband who is abandoning her and her children for another woman. The dramatic ending is still a subject of discussion for play goers today. Rated PG-13 by Director Bret Jones.
Kansas Dance Festival
November 6 - 7, 7:30 p.m.
Miller Concert Hall
The Burning Room
November 11 - 14, 7:30 p.m. and November 14 - 15, 2:00
Welsbacher Theatre
â€The Burning Roomâ€, by Darrel A. Holnes, winner of the 2009 WSU New Playwright Competition, explores the myriad relationships between men and women, Latino culture and spirituality.
Isabel, a Columbian immigrant, is enjoying her new life in America. As she and her Mexican American boyfriend Pedro celebrate his sister Carla’s Birthday, Isabel gets the shock of her life when she is visited by her â€cousin†Mario and the life she thought she left behind in Medellin. Isabel’s real past life starts to be revealed to Pedro, a Houston cop.Pedro, along with Carla’s husband, Raul, who is also a Houston cop, begin to investigate Mario. What Pedro and Raul encounter on their journey is a supernatural twist they didn’t bargain for.
Cosi fan tutte
November 19 - 21, 7:30 p.m. and November 22, 3:00 p.m.
Miller Concert Hall
Two young men are convinced their girlfriends are incapable of fidelity. Their jaded older friend has other thoughts. A bet is made, disguises donned and the games begin. The third collaboration of the renowned poet and immortal composer, Cosi was said to be inspired by gossip at the Vienese court. Mozart, who wooed Aloysia Weber then married her sister, may have had the original idea. In any case, the opera bubbles along like champagne, in the process exposing the foibles of men and women.
Putting It Together
Feb. 24 – 27, 7:30 p.m., Feb. 27 & 28, 2:00 p.m.
Welsbacher Theatre
Considered a sophisticated celebration of the work of American’s foremost music theatre composer,Stephen Sondheim, this musical revue takes the audience on a journey through many of Sondheim’smost famous shows. First performed in London in 1992, the revue played on Broadway in 1999 and In LA in 1999 w/the legendary Carol Burnett in the cast. From â€Into the Woods†to â€Funny Thing HappenedOn the Way to the Forum†to â€Company, this revue is a real showcase for the genius of Stephen Sondheim.
L'Enfant et les Sortilpges
March 11- 13, 7:30 p.m., March 14, 2:00 p.m.
Miller Concert Hall
During World War I, the Opra de Paris director asked Colette to provide the text for a fairy ballet. Colette originally wrote the story under theDivertissements por ma fille. Ravel agreed to complete the score, humorously relpying "I would like to compose this, but I have no daughter." The first performance took place 1925 with ballet sequences choreographed by George Balanchine.
The Wiyos of Oz
WCDT Spring Dance Concert
March 25 – 27, 8:30 p.m. and March 28, 2:00 p.m.
Miller Concert Hall
The Wiyos of Oz will stretch the imagination in a multidisciplinary performance combining film and dance onstage with the live music of the Wiyos in an original production and a most unusual adaptation of the Wizard of Oz story. Authored and choreographed by the WSU Dance Program Faculty and performed by the talented fine arts students at Wichita State University, this production promises to breathe new life into this cherished story.
Urinetown
April 15 - 17, 7:30 p.m., April 18, 2:00 p.m.
Wilner Auditorium
As one of the leading characters says, "What a terrible name for a musical!" Urinetown: The Musical is a satire of the Broadway musical as a form. The definition of black humor, it takes jabs at capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, and pretty small town politics. Finally, the unconventional plotline shatters audience expectations of a pleasant ending. Urinetown garnered 9 Tony Awards nominations, winning for Best Director (John Rando), Best Original Score (Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis), Best Book of a Musical (Greg Kotis).
The Father
May 5 – 8, 7:30 p.m., May 8 & 9, 2:00 p.m.
Welsbacher Theatre
August Strindberg is recognized not only as one of the world's greatest dramatist, but also as one of the world's outspoken misogynists. His contempt for women is clearly evident in his play THE FATHER where the patriarchal Captain of the Swedish Army is at odds with his uncooperative wife about the future of their daughter's life. In this new adaptation by Oliver Hailey the father and the mother are given equal voice heightening the situation and adding power to one of the modern theatre's truly great plays. Director Judith Babnich rates this play "R".