Theater season to include new spin on classics

Season subscriptions available through Nov. 4

A Shakespeare comedy featuring original music performed by the actors; an original page-to-stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s short stories; a classic comedy of manners; and a boundary-stretching new work for dancers and sculpture: Expect a wide variety of performances in the Brandeis Theater Company’s 2011-12 season.

Season subscriptions are available through Nov. 4, as space permits.

The season takes off in November with Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors,” directed by guest artist Bill Barclay. Barclay is well known to New England audiences as a director, actor, and composer with Actors Shakespeare Project and Shakespeare and Company.

“I’m interested in the musicality of Shakespeare’s canon from every angle,” says Barclay. “Songs, dances, metaphors, theory and verse.” To this end, Barclay will create a strong acting ensemble that can also perform live original music.

The passionate truths buried in everyday moments inspired Adrianne Krstansky to adapt two short stories by Virginia Woolf for the stage for a February production.

“These are simple stories in terms of events – a ride on a train, listening to a concert, a walk in a garden,” says Krstansky, a professor of theater at Brandeis. “It is how the imagination is sparked by the everyday that make these stories, to me, about a struggling of faith.”

There is much satirical diversion to be had in “She Stoops to Conquer,” an 18th-century comedy of manners by the Irish author Oliver Goldsmith. Eric Hill, professor of theater at Brandeis, directs the March production. Hill recently directed the Berkshire Theatre Festival hit production of “The Who’s Tommy.”

In April, undergraduates in their final year of theater arts studies present their thesis work. The performances in the weeklong festival reflect the mission of the department to develop an understanding of classical and contemporary theater as a collaborative process and a tool for social change.

The season concludes with “Beyond the Boundaries,” the first collaboration between choreographer Susan Dibble, chair of theater arts, and sculptor Tory Fair, professor of fine arts. In 2008, Dibble adapted and directed a dance-theater version of Edith Wharton’s “House of Mirth.” Fair’s sculpture is currently on exhibition at the de Cordova Museum in Lincoln, Mass. Dibble describes the collaboration as a “moveable feast” in the tradition of Isamu Noguchi and Martha Graham, or Merce Cunningham and Jasper Johns. “Beyond the Boundaries” is part of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts at Brandeis.

Additional special events will be announced later in the season.​

Productions will be held on two stages in the Spingold Theater Center on the Brandeis campus. For tickets, contact Brandeis Tickets at (781) 736-3400 or visit the website.

The 2011-12 season will include: 


"The Comedy of Errors"
 by William Shakespeare,
 directed by Bill Barclay,
 Nov. 10 to 13
, tickets: $20/$10

"Ordinary Mind, Ordinary Day,"
 created by Adrianne Krstansky,
 Feb. 16 to 19,
 tickets: $10/$5

"
She Stoops to Conquer"
 by Oliver Goldsmith,
 directed by Eric Hill,
 March 29 to April 1, tickets: $20/$10


Senior Thesis Festival,
 April 16 to 20,
 undergraduates in their final year of theater study present more than a dozen adventurous new works, free and open to the public

"Beyond the Boundaries,"
 created by choreographer Susan Dibble and sculptor Tory Fair,
 April 28 to 29, free and open to the public


The 2011-12 Brandeis Theater Company season is made possible through generous support from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Laurie Foundation, the Brandeis Arts Council, the Poses Fund, and the Robin, Barbara and Malcolm L. Sherman Endowment for the Performing Arts.