Duke Players Explore Forbidden Relationships
The passion of forbidden relationships - and their consequences - is the theme of Duke Players' 2000-2001 season, with plays that range across centuries and cultures.
The season opens Oct. 25 with The Darker Face of the Earth, a play by Pulitzer prize-winning poet Rita Dove, in R.J. Reynolds Industries Theater in the Bryan Center. This passionate re-telling of the Oedipus myth is set in pre-Civil War South Carolina. It is a story of forbidden love between a plantation mistress and one of her slaves.
Filled with poetry, African dance and song, The Darker Face is Dove's first full-length play. Professor Jeff Storer of the drama program faculty will direct a student and professional cast. Previously for Duke Players, Storer directed The Illusion in 1999 and Carousel in 1996. He is also artistic director of Manbites Dog Theater in Durham.
The Darker Face will include 25 to 30 student performers and professional artists, including Bradley Simmons, who will teach and orchestrate drums; Thad Bennett as choreographer and dancer; David Heid as musical director; and Frenchie Slade as costume designer. Jan Chambers of the drama faculty is scenic designer.
"Oedipus Rex had always fascinated me because we know the plot, we know the ending, but it still holds us," Dove said in a March interview with the Star-Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis. "I wanted to find a contemporary analogous situation where someone might not know their parents - where that most intimate and defining thing about us, our family, is hidden."
The Darker Face will have six performances: Oct. 25-28 at 8 p.m., with matinees at 2 p.m. on Oct. 28 and 29. Duke faculty will lead a post-performance discussion following the Oct. 28 matinee.
Other presentations in this year's Duke Players season are:
‚ The Lady from the Sea by Henrik Ibsen, which opens Nov. 30. A woman struggles with her past in this stirring drama by the great Norwegian playwright. The Lady from the Sea will be directed by Judy Hu, a Duke senior, with a student cast. It will be produced in Sheafer Theater in the Bryan Center. The play will have four performances: Nov. 30-Dec. 2 at 8 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee Dec. 3.
‚ The Changeling, a 17th-century classic by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, is about desire and the ease with which one sin can lead to another. It opens April 4, directed by professor Christine Morris of the drama program faculty, and features a student cast. Morris is a playwright and acting and voice professor who most recently directed Blood Relations for Duke Players in 1997.
The Changeling will offer six performances: April 4-7 at 8 p.m. with 2 p.m. matinees on April 7 and 8, all in Sheafer Theater. A related symposium, titled "Medicine and Madness on the Renaissance English Stage," will be held April 7, beginning in the morning and including the 2 p.m. matinee that day.
‚ Theater 2001: New Works in Process, the drama program's annual festival of new plays, will showcase dramatic works written by students, alumni, faculty and guest playwrights. Dates are tentatively set for April 12-22, with productions in Branson and Sheafer Theaters.
Season subscriptions are available at $25 general admission and $20 for students and senior citizens. Single tickets go on sale for The Darker Face in late September. Single tickets are $9 general admission, and $7 for students and senior citizens. For further information, call the University Box Office at 684-4444.