A dead poet, a tiny pea and a massive giant will take turns sharing the spotlight at the Department of Theatre and the Theatre and Interpretation Center’s Summerfest 2005.
While past Summerfest schedules have featured two or three shows, this year’s program offers six. The programming appeals to a wide variety of theatrical tastes in a festival-like atmosphere. Scheduled plays range from “The Belle of Amherst,” a one-woman drama based on the life and letters of poet Emily Dickinson, to large-scale musical comedy, such as “Once Upon A Mattress.”
The season started last weekend with the world premiere of NU alumnus and former Waa-Mu Show composer Michael Mahler’s first musical revue, “Five to Nine,” in Louis Theatre.
Communication junior and “Mattress” stage manager Candace Potempa said this year’s Summerfest shows have great popular appeal for Northwestern students.
“These are stories everyone can relate to,” she said.
“Mattress,” a musical retelling of the fairytale “The Princess and the Pea,” features 25 undergraduates who will spend the summer at NU rehearsing seven days a week to prepare for the July 15 opening.
In spite of time constraints, rehearsals have been “fun and relaxed,” said Communication sophomore Cynthia Degros.
“The cast is learning how to tell their own stories so they can better tell the stories of the magical world (where the musical takes place),” she said.
“Mattress” director Rives Collins has worked to foster unity by leading the cast in games of “hug tag” and asking the students to swap stories about the origins of their names.
“You can’t talk about names for too long without talking about things that matter,” Collins said. “I like taking time in a rehearsal process to just be together. These guys are fast becoming family.”
Also leading the bill of family-friendly fare is “Big Friendly Giant,” an adaptation of the popular children’s novel by Roald Dahl. “BFG” is a joint production of the theatre department and Chicago Theatre for Young Audiences, a company founded by three NU theatre alumni.
Although the cast of “BFG” includes NU graduates, many other students will work behind the scenes as summer interns for CTYA, coordinating development and educational outreach around Chicago. The interns will travel to neighborhood street fairs, libraries and bookstores to lead craft and drama workshops.
Through the interns’ efforts, children will have the opportunity to build their own “dream jars,” create paper bag puppets and learn how a page from the script is translated into live theater.
“The literature is familiar, and I feel it means more (for children) to see something they could read,” said CTYA managing director Meghan Pressman.
The Summerfest season will conclude in August with two short-running productions, “Hello, Jerry!,” a one-night celebration of Broadway composer/lyricist Jerry Herman, and “Broadway Babies,” which will reunite the “Mattress” cast for two evenings of classic showtunes. Both events already have sold out.
For showtimes, visit www.tic.northwestern.edu. For ticket information, call the TI box office at 847-491-7282.
Reach Lindsay Meck at [email protected]
