2009-10 Season

The Wicked One

World premiere of an original play written by a Lamar University student.

Oct. 8 - 11, 2009
Written by Christopher Murray
Directed by Joel Grothe
University Theatre

In 1973, Abbigale Archibald returns to her childhood home, a sprawling antebellum plantation in rural Sunshine, Louisiana, to take care of some family business. When she arrives, the ghosts of her long-departed family slowly start to reappear. As Abbey relives the decades-old events of December 1941 that led to her family’s demise, she is reminded of the fact that, no matter how terrible your family is, it is yours, and you only get one. The Wicked One, which is evocative of such American classics as Desire Under the Elms and Buried Child, is a new play written by senior theatre major Christopher Murray.

Donald McKayle Lecture and Demonstration

Oct. 15, 2009
University Theatre

Donald McKayle, one of the few remaining pioneers of African-American presence in modern dance, will be in residence at Lamar University to coach Lamar dance students in a restaging of his seminal dance work, Games. As part of the residency, Mr. McKayle will give a free lecture and demonstration to the public highlighting his influential 60-year career in the dance world. Mr. McKayle has received numerous prestigious dance honors, including five Tony Award nominations, the NAACP Image Award and an Emmy Award nomination. This talk is made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

All in the Timing

Nov. 12 - 15, 2009
Written by David Ives
Directed by Rebecca Stone Thornberry
Studio Theatre

All in the Timing is a collection of six comedic one-act plays by David Ives that explore themes of language, identity, space and time.

Sure Thing is a classic of contemporary comedy: two people meet in a cafe and find their way through a conversational minefield as an offstage bell interrupts their false starts, gaffes and faux pas on the way to falling in love.

Words, Words, Words, recalls the philosophical adage that three monkeys typing into infinity will sooner or later produce Hamlet, and asks: What would monkeys talk about at their typewriters?

The Universal Language brings together Dawn, a young woman with a stammer, and Don, the creator and teacher of Unamunda, a wild comic language. Their lesson sends them off into a dazzling display of hysterical verbal pyrotechnics—and, of course, true love.

Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread is a parodic musical vignette in trademark Glassian style, with the celebrated composer having a moment of existential crisis in a bakery.

The Philadelphia presents a young man in a restaurant who has fallen into "a Philadelphia," a Twilight Zone-like state in which he cannot get anything he asks for. His only way out of the dilemma? To ask for the opposite of what he wants.

Variations on the Death of Trotsky shows us the Russian revolutionary on the day of his demise, desperately trying to cope with the mountain-climber's axe he's discovered in his head. (Source: Dramatists Play Services)

Fall Dance Concert: Fun and Games

Nov. 19 - 20, 2009
University Theatre

The dance concert opens with an eclectic mix of dance styles, including a contemporary jazz ballet piece, a zany modern dance titled “Radio Active Balls,” a traditional praise dance and a piece choreographed by dance student Angel-Marie Goines, from La Porte. “Fun & Games” concludes with a restaging of legendary choreographer Donald McKayle’s seminal dance work, “Games.” The production of “Games” is made possible in part through a Dance: Masterpieces grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Dickens on the Strand

Dec. 4 - 6, 2009
Lamar Puppet Theatre Production
Directed by Kelly Draper
Galveston, Texas

Harrison, Texas: Three One-Act Plays by Horton Foote

Blind Date directed by Dee Dee Howell
The One Armed Man directed by Kyle Romero
John Turner Davis directed by Christopher Murray
Feb. 11 - 16, 2010
Studio Theatre

The Department of Theatre & Dance will presented three student-directed one-act plays by the late Texas playwright Horton Foote. All three are set in the fictional Gulf Coast town of Harrison, Texas, during the 1920s and 30s.

Blind Date is a charming portrait of a well-meaning aunt who tries to fix up her visiting rebellious niece with a bookish local boy who aspires to be a mortician.

In "The One-Armed Man," McHenry returns to his former job to reclaim his arm lost in an industrial accident; his boss must determine how far the one-armed man will go to get what he wants.

And "John Turner Davis" is a heartwarming story about a boy whose migrant worker guardians have deserted him; as the kindly townspeople help him search for his missing aunt and uncle, John Turner Davis discovers that home is not as much about where as who. Axle Wisor, son of Jeffrey Wisor, assistant professor of theatre, will be featured in the title role.

Dance Stimulus: Spring Dance Concert

April 15 - 16, 2010
University Theatre

Choreographers present a variety of dance works, with choreographic styles ranging from ballet, jazz, modern, tap, musical theatre, improvisation and hip-hop, and performed primarily by Lamar students.

The Burial at Thebes; a Version of Sophocles' Antigone

by Seamus Heaney
Directed by Joel Grothe
April 22 - 27, 2010
Studio Theatre

In Sophocles' classic Greek drama, Antigone fights to bury her brother Polyneices against the edict of her uncle Creon, the new king of Thebes. Translated and adapted by Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney.