When walking by Thompson Hall during the school year, it is easy to think “I’d love to see a University Theatre play, but I’m way too busy with classes.” Fortunately, University Theatre is running three different plays throughout the month of June for its annual TheatreFEST event to help you scratch that live-performance itch now that school is out. The theme is style, and it starts with a cup of tea.
The three plays featured this year are “Tea with Edie and Fitz,” “Full Gallop” and “Hay Fever.” “Tea with Edie and Fitz” has already started its run of shows, while the other two plays start this weekend and the following week respectively. “Tea” centers around an infamous meeting between novelist Edith Wharton and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
“They met for tea and then they never spoke to each other again,” said Mia Self, the assistant director of acting and directing at University Theatre and the director of “Tea.” “That idea, coupled with the playwright’s interest in both of those writers led to the weaving of this story about hypothetically what might have happened.”
The play tackles the lives of both writers before and after the infamous tea and their sides of the story. On Fitzgerald’s side, the play focuses on his marriage to his wife Zelda and on Edith’s side, the play covers her mentoring relationship with deceased writer Henry James — who appears as a ghost in the show — as well as her work on her memoir “A Backwards Glance” and her reflections about her writing life. According to Self, the play follows Edith forward in time and the Fitzgeralds backward through time, with the tea date being the moment that intersects them and the play’s final act.
“Structurally, it’s a really interesting play, but really [it’s] about the relationship,” Self said. “What is the relationship of the artist to their art form and to the other artists around them, those primary relationships and how they influence how we create art, what we are writing and how we are shaping the world?”
There are a handful of silent-movie style scenes throughout the play to stylistically portray portions of Fitzgerald’s portion of the story. University Theatre is the first company in the southeast to put on the play, according to Self.
Self said that she wanted to do the play because of an obsession with Zelda Fitzgerald. Self originally considered “Tea” for TheatreFEST’s “event” play — a production that typically involves food and more audience interaction — but the play was too long. “Tea” instead became a full production while “Full Gallop” became this year’s event play.
“Full Gallop” is a one-woman play about Diana Vreeland, a New York fashion editor and columnist who was the editor-in-chief of Vogue throughout most of the 1960s.
“‘Full Gallop’ is an examination of fashion icon Dianna Vreeland at a pivotal moment in her fantastic career,” said John McIlwee, the director of University Theatre. “This one-woman tour de force features the talents of one of TheatreFEST’s favorite actresses, Lynda Clarke, in a nonstop and intimate dialogue with the audience.”
John McIlwee is directing University Theatre’s production of “Full Gallop” and “Hay Fever.” As this year’s event play, “Gallop” is being presented in several different ways. A Gallop Gala ticket ($60 per person) earns you two drink tickets, hors d’oeuvres, a ticket to the show and access to a pre-show musical soiree and onstage tour of the set. This ticket covers this Friday’s 7 p.m. showing. A Full Gallop High Tea ticket ($50 per person) covers a tea event catered by The Lucky Teapot, a ticket to the show and a tour of the stage. This event occurs once this Saturday and once on June 17. The third ticket type is a normal ticket to one of two 2 p.m. matinee showings on Sunday or June 24.
Normal ticket pricing for a TheatreFEST 2017 show is $20 a person, with additional discounts for NC State students lowering the cost to $6 per person per ticket and non-NCSU students to $12.
University Theatre casts from the local Raleigh community and students are encouraged to audition. This year, several NC State students have parts in “Hay Fever” and students and alumni are involved backstage on every play. McIlwee said the plays are funded by a grant from the Raleigh Arts Commission and private donations, which allows University Theatre to run three full productions in the same month.
“The professional staff displays their varied and spectacular theatricality once more in three visually beautiful productions,” McIlwee said. “As directors, we are always excited to work with such imaginative artists in set design, costume design and lighting. This part of our productions is constantly appreciated by our audiences as well.”
“Hay Fever” will begin its run on June 15. Information on how to purchase tickets to any of the three shows is available at University Theatre’s website.
