City Theatre ready for 2009-10 theatrical season
La Tisha Clayton | Staff Writer
The lights go down, the music calms, the audience ceases their jabber and the spotlight illuminates the stage.
Thus begins the play and so has City College’s new theatrical season.
The City Theater season began with what has become a City College tradition: The 29-and-a -half hour Playwriting Festival in which a group of playwrights are given a theme, a director, some actors, 10 hours and one day of rehearsal to produce an original work of theater.
“It was really upbeat, fast paced, fun and original,” say theater major Katina Meers. “It’s amazing how a theater play can be made, rehearsed, and presented in such little time, only 29-and-a-half hours.”
Lori Ann Delappe-Grondin, theater professor and director of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” which opens Sept. 25, says that this season of plays will be exciting and theater goers will be in for a treat.
“We are presenting everything from spooky to kooky, farcical to musical,” says DeLappe-Grondin. “We also have a wonderful studio presentation of plays about our old city cemetery.”
DeLappe-Grondin also says that this year’s production line up is adapted for all audiences—with a few exceptions.
“‘Peter Pan’ is a family production, so kids of all ages [6 and up] are encouraged to attend, and we do not have any productions this year intended for mature audiences,” she says.
City College history major Courtney Moore says she can’t wait to see the premiere of this season’s first play, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”.
“That is one of my favorite novels of all-time and I’ve never seen it done on stage before,” says Moore. “I’m interested in seeing how they adapt a complex novel with all the different settings and characters onto one stage within a two-hour time frame.”
DeLappe-Grondin says that people should come to this modern retelling of a classic tale, and that audiences may be surprised at the outcome.”
All performances are on Friday and Saturday evenings beginning at 8 p.m. All Saturday and Sunday matinees begin at 2 p.m. and all Sunday performances will be interpreted in American Sign Language.
Tickets for evening performances are $15 general admission, $12 for discounted students and seniors admission. Matinee performances are $13 general admission and $10 for discounted admission.
For more information, visit the City Theatre’s Web site at: www.citytheatre.net.
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