Published: August 20, 2008 11:08 am            

OSU theater opens season Friday

The OSU theater department will open its 2008-09 season Friday with a production of “The Water Engine” by David Mamet.

Professor B. Peter Westerhoff is directing the play about the production of a radio play in the 1930s.

The radio play is about a young inventor who has found a way to run an engine on distilled water who is ridiculed then threatened over his invention.

The show will run Friday and Saturday in the Jerry L. Davis Studio in Gundersen Hall at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $5 will go on sale one hour before the performance outside the studio for $5. Season tickets cannot be used for this production.

“The Memory of Water” by Shelagh Stephenson will open Sept. 30 under the direction of Assistant Professor Matthew Tomlanovich.

The dark comedy begins when three sisters reunite in their northern English childhood home for their mother’s funeral and explores the nature of memory and how it plays tricks on people.

The play is intended for mature audiences. Show times are Sept. 30 through Oct. 3 3 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 5 at 2:30 p.m.

“Endgame” by Samuel Beckett will open Oct. 21 in the Jerry L, Davis Studio in Gundersen Hall, directed by graduate assistant Wilhemina McLafferty. The play centers around a blind and paralyzed man and his servant Clov, who cannot sit down. They live together in a small seaside house and have been fighting for years.

The show runs Oct. 21-25 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 26 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 and will go on sale one hour before the performance outside the studio. Season tickets cannot be used for this production.

Oliver Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer” will round off the first half of the season under the direction of Assistant Professor Lloyd Caldwell. The comedy is a mixture of mistaken identity, confused social status and romance.

The show will run Nov. 19-22 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 23 at 2:30 p.m.

Two studio productions in February and March will be announced at a later date. Tickets will be $5 and will go on sale one hour before the performance outside the studio. Season tickets cannot be used for these productions.

The season closes April 22-26 with the musical “Urinetown” by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis under the direction of Professor B. Peter Westerhoff. The satirical comedy takes place after a 20-year drought has resulted in no private toilets, so that people must pay to use public toilets.

The show will run April 22-25 at 7:30 p.m. and April 26 at 2:30 p.m.

This year, the department is emphasizing dramaturgy and playwriting and will hold a panel discussion or audience talkback following one performance for each of the main stage productions.

All attendees at that designated show will have the opportunity to discuss the show with invited scholars and professionals and hear about the play’s history, social or cultural contextualization and more.

Season tickets can be purchased at the OSU theater office, 121 Seretean Center, 744-9208.

Season tickets are $30 for general adult and $24 for seniors and students.

At the department’s booth at Lights on Stillwater today, tickets will be on a buy-one-get-one-half-off sale.

Season ticket holders will have the opportunity to call two weeks before the show to reserve their seats.

Individual tickets can be purchased at the OSU box office the week of the productions for $12 general admission, $10 senior admission and $10 student admission.

        

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