The quality of resilience and the theater scene go hand in hand. The show must go on, after all.
Transylvania Theater’s 2019-20 season will tackle the topic of resilience — the university’s theme for this academic year — with four productions reminding us of our capacity to overcome challenges with both grit and humor.
“This year’s season explores what it means to be resilient through diverse circumstances and experiences,” said Tosha Fowler, Transylvania University’s Lucille C. Little Chair of Theater and program director. “My goal is to bring audiences together to witness not only the obstacles that challenge these characters, but more importantly, how they overcome and conquer their obstacles through humor, love and strength.”
Fowler believes that in life, as in art, we must be prepared to go forth into danger. “We must truly risk in order to break open our hearts and minds so that we may evolve into the next best version of ourselves,” she said.
This year’s campus theme reminds her of a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke: “Surely all art is having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, where one can go no further.”
Picnic
Nov. 14-16 and 21-23 at 7:30 p.m. — and Nov. 17, 24 at 2 p.m. in Little Theater
Sensual, passionate and delightfully funny, “Picnic” is a timeless American classic about the line between restraint and desire. When a handsome young drifter arrives just before the town picnic, his combination of uncouth manners and titillating charm sends the women reeling, especially the beautiful Madge, who must decide whether their fleeting encounter is worth changing the course of her life in the midst of family and friends telling her what roles women should play.
Writer: William Inge
Director: Marianne Phelps
- “Funny…Beautiful…Honest…Original.” — New York Times
- Winner of the 1953 Pulitzer Prize and the Critics Circle Award
The VOX Show: Femininity for All
Feb. 14 and 15 at 7:30 p.m. in Coleman Recital Hall
An eclectic evening of performances celebrating love and identifying female. Transylvania students, faculty and staff — and members of the Lexington community — will collaborate on this theatrical event. The VOX Show is all about love, community and femininity — in all its forms.
Director: Madison Plucknett ’19
The Way the Mountain Moved by Idris Goodwin: A Staged Reading Performance
Feb. 19 at 6:30 p.m. in Carrick Theater
Transy Theater partners with BCTC Theater to bring you this powerful journey into the genesis of the Transcontinental Railroad, exploring the often untold perspectives on an iconic chapter in American history, including the events that shaped the country’s moral and environmental future. In a remote desert in the 1850s, four men — a U.S. Army lieutenant, sharpshooter, botanist and artist — set out to survey a route for the new continent-spanning railroad. After being scattered on separate odysseys, they cross paths with lost pioneers, cautious Native Americans and an African American Mormon couple unsure whether to befriend, fight or flee the newcomers. Whose dreams will prevail?
Director: Tosha Fowler
A talkback with Goodwin, an award-winning playwright, will follow the show.
Fun Home
May 13-16 at 7:30 p.m. and May 17 at 2 p.m. in Little Theater
The winner of five 2015 Tony Awards including Best Musical, “Fun Home” is based on Alison Bechdel’s bestselling graphic memoir. This groundbreaking production introduces us to Bechdel at three different ages, revealing memories of her uniquely dysfunctional family that connect with her in surprising new ways.
The show is part of the university’s New Frontiers series.
Writers: Alison Bechdel, Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori
Director: Tosha Fowler
Musical director: Regan MacNay
“Heart-gripping and cathartic, ‘Fun Home’ occupies the place where we all grew up.” — The New York Times
Stay tuned for Transylvania Theater’s 2019-20 ticket information.