A Welcome from Nick Mangano, It is with pleasure that I welcome you to the Department of Theatre Arts and to our 2008-09 Main Stage Season. Through our top notch undergraduate and graduate programs, encompassing Theatre, Dance and Media Arts in a Liberal Arts context, we are dedicated to expanding the minds and imaginations of our students. We foster rigorous investigation, interdisciplinary training, creative application, and bold risk taking. We nurture the growth of not just the theatre practitioner, but of the human being through awareness of the multifaceted world in which we live, multicultural viewpoints, personal values, the role of theatre in society, and above all respect for individualism and collaboration.
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We will open in the fall with EURYDICE, a poetic, contemporary re-imagining of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth about love, loss and remembering by one of American's hottest and inventive playwrights, Sarah Ruhl, who also wrote THE CLEAN HOUSE. Next up in the fall Deb Mayo will direct the classic comedy THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD by John Millington Synge. Set, coincidentally, in County Mayo, Ireland, this fantastic tale of hero worship, romance and the mores of a rural Irish Village caused riots when it premiered at the Abbey Theatre in 1907. In the spring, Valeri Lantz-Gefroh will direct Shakespeare's ROMEO & JULIET. This play needs no introduction and we are pleased to present one of the most enduring plays about love and the fatal consequences of hate and intolerance. And finally, the spring will see the inauguration of the STONY BROOK THEATRE FESTIVAL, featuring a week-long presentation of readings of new work by some of the country's leading playwrights. We will feature the plays of Sarah Ruhl, among others, and are planning a number of activities in which students will interact with prominent writers and other theatre artists. The Festival is an important new venture for the Department and for Stony Brook and I hope to see the participation of the entire department. More details will be made available throughout the fall, so stay tuned.
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Nick Mangano |