Your School. Your Paper. Since 1936.

The Suffolk Journal

Your School. Your Paper. Since 1936.

The Suffolk Journal

Your School. Your Paper. Since 1936.

The Suffolk Journal

Theater Department unveils 2011-2012 schedule

Theater+Department++unveils+2011-2012+schedule

This is going to be a special year for Suffolk University’s Theatre Department. Last Thursday, the department had their annual “town hall” meeting, where they welcomed freshmen interested in joining the department, as well as returning students.

The first big announcement of the meeting, which Director Marilyn Plotkins announced with great glee, was that this fall, the Theatre Department would be doing a bit of Shakespeare. To help with that, Allynn Burrows, the Director of the Actors’ Shakespeare Project, and David Gammons, the Director of the Theatre Program at Concord Academy will be working within the productions. The Theatre Department is very happy to have both extremely accomplished directors on their team.

This year, the 24 Hour Play Festival will be returning. For this event, six students get together, each of whom will have a different role, and have 24-hours to write, practice, perfect, and finally, act out their plays.

Students at Suffolk have set a new school record this year, with the most amounts of plays written by students being produced for this season. Four of these plays will be premiering this fall, with another four premiering in the spring. The Theatre Department actively encourages all of their students to write, with Director Plotkins saying that they aim to create an atmosphere where people think, “Hey, I can do that too!” It works, as six out of nine student actors at Suffolk writing their own plays as well.

The four student written plays that will be premiering this fall are: Under Covers, written by Ryan O’Connor and directed by Isaiah Rotondi-Gray; The Secret of Mr. Montgomery, written by Arissara Chounchiasit; Boy Meets Girl, written by Conor Sampson and directed by Linday Brissette; and Sitcom, written by Alec Lawless. Bryan Pytka, whose first play will be premiering this spring, said that writing plays is a “great opportunity with the Theatre Department… because you get to delve into the play more and get into character’s heads because you created them.”

Showing at Suffolk University’s Modern Theatre this fall will be Mortal Terror, a play about William Shakespeare that will run September 15-October 2. On October 15, Robert Hampson’s MAIN will be at the theatre, a project featuring a wide range of different sounds and music. From November 17 to November 20, Doctor Faustus will be showing, a play in which a man makes a dangerous deal with the devil for power. November 29 sees the return of flamenco group Casa Patas, along with famous jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.

Three conversations will also be held at the Modern this year. On September 23, Robert Brustein will discuss the future of Shakespeare production in America with Oskar Eustis of New York’s The Public Theatre, and Jenny Gersten of the Williamstown Theatre Festival. On October 6, Robert Brustein will be talking with award-winning playwright and actor Christopher Durang. Finally, on December 1, the Suffolk University literary community and local Boston writers will discuss the works of David Ferry.

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Theater Department unveils 2011-2012 schedule