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a Beloit College Theatre production directed by Amy Sarno April 17-19 and Neese Theatre Tickets: $8.50 Reserve tickets with the Beloit College box office at 608-363-2755. |
Can a woman of humble means remain a good person after she receives a substantial financial reward? This question is posed by Good Woman of Setzuan, the final production of Beloit College Theatre’s 2007-08 season. The play will run from Thursday, April 17, through Saturday, April 19, and Thursday, April 24, through Saturday, April 26, at 8 p.m., in the Neese Theater, in the Neese Performing Arts Complex, on the Beloit College campus. Tickets are $8.50 ($5 for senior citizens and $4 for students) and may be reserved through the Beloit College box office at 608-363-2755 (after 12:30 p.m.).
Completed in 1943 by influential playwright Bertolt Brecht, Good Woman of Setzuan asks whether it is possible to be altruistic within a society that prizes economic gain to the point of sanctioning exploitation. In the drama, Shen Te is the only person to offer shelter to three traveling strangers. Like all who refused them, she is unaware that they are gods. For her kindness, the gods reward her with money, but they wonder whether or not financial success will affect her ability to be good. The play follows Shen Te as she opens a shop with the money she has been given and struggles to balance her compassionate nature with the cold, pragmatic attitude she must assume in order to stay in business.
Director Amy Sarno, an associate professor of theatre arts at the college, thinks that―irrespective of its age―the play addresses important contemporary issues. “This play is about now. This play is about taking action,” she says.
With that in mind, she directed Good Woman of Setzuan in a way that emphasizes its relevance. The college’s production will be staged “in-the-round,” with the audience seated on all sides of the stage. “When you are watching a show in-the-round, you always have a sense of other members of the audience,” Sarno says. “Viewers see how other people are reacting to the material being presented, which colors the way they think about what the actors are doing. Theatre-in-the-round is more dialogic, because of the relationship the audience builds with itself.”
Benjamin Naparsteck, a junior from Deer Park, Ill., wrote rap lyrics for songs that are included in the drama. His music gives the production an appropriate modern edge. “This play is taking place in the ‘here and now’ at Beloit College, with regular Beloit College students―in their clothes, with their language, and listening to their music,” Sarno explains.
For more details about the upcoming Beloit College Theatre production, contact Sarno at sarnofra@beloit.edu. Information about this and other events at Beloit College can be found online at www.beloit.edu.