Fifty years ago, University Theatre opened its doors to its first production of Antigone. Fifty years later, Antigone will once again take on a starring role as part of the ongoing celebrations for the theater program.
According to University Theatre Director John McIlwee, the classic Greek tragedy will take on a modern twist as it is performed with a new translation: Antigone: The Burial at Thebes.
“It’ll be geared towards one of the more modern wars rather than the Greek wars,” McIlwee said. “It’ll still be using the language from the play, but it’ll be done with a modern focus because the theme of Antigone is ageless. It hits on all of the dynamics of the original play, so it’s going to be an entirely imaginative production utilizing the modern focus, and it is just amazing how many of the themes are totally applicable today.”
Antigone will fall under the command of University Theatre’s newest director, Mia Self, according to Lindsey House, a University Theatre actress senior in conservation biology.
“I feel that since she is new and there is new blood coming in, I feel like she is going to add her own pizazz, her own art to it,” House said. “Also, I feel that whoever gets cast in Antigone, from seeing as how Mia is connecting with the actors with warm-ups for You Can’t Take it With You … are going to have a lot of fun with it.”
You Can’t Take it With You, another classic dating back to the 1930s, will debut in October as University Theatre’s first performance for this season, according to Peter Lalush, University Theatre actor and sophomore in computer science.
“It’s a really, really funny show, first of all,” Lalush said. “It’s about two families in the ‘30s. One is very strange and the other one is not, and a daughter from the strange family is meeting a boy from the not strange family, and when the families meet on the worst night possible, things go hilariously wrong. There’s this whole theme of not having to work all of your life to be happy and having a lot of money to be happy.”
Other shows in the 50th anniversary lineup include Around the World in 80 Days and Little Shop of Horrors, which will showcase the theater program’s creativity.
Around the World in 80 Days will add a puppetry element to its story, while Little Shop of Horrors will experiment with a more “gothic” and “creepy” design, according to House.
“We’re going to play with design a lot this year, I feel, now that we can use different things and really have gotten comfortable with what we can do with what we have,” House said.
Remembering the past
Before becoming a full-time student production theater, University Theatre started out as a professional theater on campus that switched to a community theater, according to McIlwee.
“Our goal was always after that to have the theatrical experience available to any student on campus from any major, so that they could come and participate in any way they want to,” McIlwee said. “The only thing that you even have to audition for is acting, obviously, but the other things — getting involved in costuming and set design and props and lighting design and all the technical areas and ushering and all that sort of thing — you just come in and say that you are interested, and we try to find that place for the student to work.”
Lalush said he knew he wanted to be a part of University Theatre and attend NC State after seeing their production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in high school.
“It looked like such a great theatre department, and now I’m part of it, and I’m happy to say that my assumption was true,” Lalush said.
University Theatre alumna and 2014 graduate in communication Diana Quetti said she hopes to make it out to some of the shows this year as a tribute to how grateful she is for the program.
“I met some of my best friends there,” Quetti said. “I learned so much from my teachers, and I will never forget it.”
Looking to the future
Each year, University Theatre’s mission gets stronger, according to McIlwee. In order to serve more students on campus, he said he hopes the program can add more specialized workshops catered to design and technical production.
“Even if they are not going into theater, many of them graduated and were able to go out and get theater jobs because their training has been so good with the design staff,” McIlwee said.
The quality and size of productions will also expand with the opening of Stewart Theatre in the new Talley Student Union, which will include a revisit to their diversity and minority shows, according to McIlwee.
“I think we are just extremely lucky the arts grew up on this campus to add excitement and to add depth, and frankly a good time for a lot of students, a place that they can fit in, and I think that seems to be working beautifully for us,” McIlwee said.
