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  • March 10, 2013

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SPRING BREAK

March 10, 2013 - March 17, 2013

‘Five Women Wearing the Same Dress’

March 5, 2013 @ 8:00 am - March 10, 2013 @ 5:00 pm
, Staten Island, 10301

Five Women graphicThe Wagner College Theatre will present the hit comedy, “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress,” March 5-10 in its Stage One studio theater. This outrageously funny and touching celebration of the female spirit was written in 1993 by Alan Ball, the award-winning creator of the movie, “American Beauty,” and the HBO series, “Six Feet Under.”

During an ostentatious wedding reception at a Knoxville, Tennessee estate, five women hide out in an upstairs bedroom, each with their own reason for not attending the celebration. As the afternoon goes on, these five very different women discover a common bond in this comedy about friendship and love.

“Ball is a prolific writer who is able to take the audience into controversial issues with humor,” says director and Wagner College theater faculty member David McDonald. “The play is about people figuring out the question of why we are so conflicted. I love the fact that it addresses serious issues from many different points of view. It has all of the requirements of an excellent play because of the brilliance of the writer. I was drawn to it right away.”

The five women, who share a hatred of the bride because she seems to have it all, spend their time together discussing everything from love and relationships to religion, beauty and personal pain.

“The play is meant to put us in this world where money is a big deal,” McDonald says. “It is very political, and it really questions our notions about different taboos and behaviors.”

The cast of six includes seniors Elana Abt, Amanda Snyder, Karin Bryeans and Allie Dufford.

“Our students are the best,” McDonald says of his cast. “They have to be technicians with the text, brilliant with the language, understand what is happening, and have the courage to play it.”

“Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” will be presented in the Stage One studio theatre on the campus of Wagner College March 5-9 at 8 p.m., and March 9-10 at 2 p.m. All tickets are $10. For tickets, call the box office at 718-390-3259.

WCT’s ‘Rent’

March 6, 2013 @ 8:00 pm - March 10, 2013 @ 10:00 pm
, Staten Island, 10301

Rent

Twenty years after Wagner College awarded Jonathan Larson the 1993 Stanley Drama Award for an early version of his groundbreaking rock opera, the Wagner College Theatre will stage “Rent” for the first time on its Main Stage beginning Wednesday, Feb. 27.

Based loosely on Puccini’s opera, “La Bohème,” “Rent” tells the story of a group of impoverished young musicians struggling to survive in New York’s Lower East Side, under the shadow of AIDS. It is an unforgettable tale of young artists learning to survive, love and find their voice.

Today, Jonathan Larson’s rock opera is a staple of modern musical theater — but 20 years ago, “Rent” was still a work in progress consisting of a developmental script and a few self-recorded songs on a cassette made by the playwright/composer himself.

The idea for “Rent” had been conceived in 1989, but by 1991 Larson was still waiting tables at a SoHo diner to pay the rent on a fifth floor, cold-water Hudson Square walkup he shared with two roommates and a couple of cats.

Fortunately, for him and for us, that’s when Larson somehow heard about the Stanley Drama Award competition, administered by the Wagner College Theatre. He sent his script along with a demo tape to Bill Bly, director of the Stanley … and waited.

“It just jumped right out,” Bly told Staten Island Advance arts editor Michael J. Fressola in 1996. “My impression at the time was that the script needed a little more work, but there was no question [as to whether it was that year’s Stanley Award winner]. It was just so obvious.”

Fressola himself today recalls listening to Larson’s “Rent” cassette in his car late in 1992 as he prepared a story about the Stanley.

“The tape was rough,” Fressola says. “Nothing about it was polished, and at first the concept sounded derivative and unwieldy — but the material proved to be terrific: smart, young, heartfelt, rousing and topical.”

According to Fressola, when Billy Bly told Jonathan Larson he’d won the competition, “a grateful Larson told him that the $2,000 Stanley prize would allow him to avoid taking a ‘straight’ job for a while and buy him the luxury of a little time to work on ‘Rent’.”

A year after “Rent” won the Stanley, it was given a staged reading at the New York Theatre Workshop, followed by a three-week studio production in 1994. A lengthy editing process, in collaboration with producers, readied Larson’s masterpiece for its Off-Broadway debut on Jan. 26, 1996 — a debut the composer did not live to see. Larson died early that very morning in his walkup flat, killed by an undiagnosed heart condition. He was 35.

After moving to Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre later in 1996, “Rent” went on to win every major theatrical award, including the Tony Award for Best Musical.

“As a piece of theatre in the 1990s, ‘Rent’ changed the course of musical history,” said Tony Award-winning actor Michele Pawk, who is directing this month’s Wagner College Theatre production. “For the first time, it brought pop music into the Broadway theatre and told a story.”

Pawk, a Wagner College professor, feels a great connection to the play and the life lessons that Jonathan Larson wrote about.

“I think what is really important is that, even though it is now more of a period piece, the ideas that are written about so beautifully in this play are still important. It’s about love, life and not wasting a second, because ‘you have no day like today’,” Pawk said.

Musical director Brandon Suriale and choreographer Ashley Berger join Pawk in directing the cast, which includes seniors Robby Haltiwanger, Alex Boniello, Melanie Brook, Jenny Kelly, Dave Resultan, Anthony Colasuonno, Olivia Puckett, Liza Colpa, Rhea Francani, Seth Price, J.R Goodman, Caitlin Beckman, Concetta Raineri and Paige Howell.

The set, designed by Wagner College senior Anthony Freitas, will ask the audience to use their imaginations.

“I like the look of the bare bones, everything exposed set,” Pawk said. “It allows the cast a lot of freedom.”

Wagner College Theatre presents “Rent,” with book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, on its Main Stage from Feb. 27 through March 10, with dates and showtimes as below:

130227 Rent schedule

Tickets run from $16 to $27. For tickets to this show, or a season subscription, call the box office at 718-390-3259, or visit the box office online.

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