7:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Eastern Connecticut State University Harry Hope Theatre
83 Windham Street
Willimantic, CT06226
› Driving Directions
STIMULATING SEASON OF SHOWS AT THE HARRY HOPE THEATRE
Eastern Connecticut State University Performing Arts Department Theatre program will present two award-winning contemporary plays this Fall 2015 dealing with issues so prevalent and relevant that one might think these plays were written based upon the news in today’s headlines.
Simon Stephens' Pornography to be directed by David Pellegrini will run October 6-11, 2015 and Patrick Shanley's Doubt, A Parable to be directed by Alycia Bright-Holland will run October 27-November 1, 2015. Both shows will be presented Tuesday-Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 4pm in Harry Hope Theatre (Shafer Hall, ground floor; corner of High and Valley Streets, Willimantic, CT).
Simon Stephens is an award-winning playwright (e.g. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play and the Olivier Award for Best New Play 2013; Pornography won the Critics' Award for Theatre in Scotland for Best New Play in 2008; On the Shore of The Wide World won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2005; One Minute won the Tron Theatre Award for Best New Play in 2003; Port won the Pearson Award for Best New Play in 2001) and has been nominated for prestigious awards for others. As critic Michael Billington of the Guardian stated regarding Pornography, “Stephens offers a remarkable kaleidoscopic portrait of a London that moved in a few days from the euphoria of Live 8 and the Olympics announcement to the devastation of the July 7 bombings… And, without pushing the point, Stephens implies that a moment of crisis changes the collective ethos of the city.” In the Guardian interview of the playwright by Lynn Gardner, Stephens said, "I don't find creating art cathartic," he says. "It's not therapy for me, or anybody who sees it. But I do see plays as a way for me and the audience to think about the way we live and what we are. Otherwise why do it? I'm interested in the possibility of redemption, however tiny that possibility is, and I know that forgiveness is very difficult." "What was striking about the London bombings," says Stephens, "was that it was British boys who had done it. People who had been born and bred here. There was a sense of incredulity that British boys had attacked London. I didn't share that incredulity… When people become dislocated, they start to objectify each other. I felt very strongly that the objectification needed to commit an act of terrorism, and kill 52 strangers, is far more pervasive than people were saying." Doubt,
A Parable won the Tony Award for Best Play, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, Drama Critics Circle Award, Obie Award for Playwriting, and the film version which was directed by Shanley won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay. Shanley is also an Academy Award winning writer (Moonstruck) and often draws from his real-life experiences as posited in a New York Times interview of Shanley in 2004, (e.g. “Doubt, inspired by a relative's experience with a priest who was convicted of child molestation… Sailor's Song, a lyrical meditation on choosing to love in the face of death, written after Shanley's mother, father and eldest sister all died within an 18-month period… Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Shanley's 1984 two-character play about desperate loners afraid of love… “). Jon Simon of New York Magazine proffered in his review, “Doubt may well be Shanley’s best play to date. It goes back to his days in a Catholic school in the Bronx run by Sisters of Charity, and while it does not seem patently autobiographical, eight years at that school surely left their mark on the playwright. Another influence must be the recent revelations of pederasty in the priesthood. But what makes the play particularly absorbing is its enlightened objectivity.”
Tickets are free for Eastern students; $5 for other students and groups of 10 or more; $10 for Eastern faculty, staff, alumni, and senior citizens; and $15 for the general public. For reservations, please call the Harry Hope Theatre box office (860-465-5123) or email theatreboxoffice@easternct.edu.
