Meadville, Pa. – April 7, 2006 –The Allegheny College Playshop Theatre will present “Tartuffe” on April 20, 21, and 22 at 8 p.m. and April 23 at 2:30 p.m. in Arter Hall on the Allegheny College campus. Beginning at 2 p.m. and immediately preceding the performance on April 23 will be an event called the “Groovy 1960s Fashion Show,” featuring men's and women's fashions spanning that colorful decade.
“Tartuffe” is a satire skewering religious hypocrisy, would-be adulterers, and the privileges enjoyed by the moneyed elite. When Orgon succumbs to the pious fervor of a phony cleric, his powers of reason are blinded by his quest for eternal salvation. Will sanctimony cost Orgon his home, family, and freedom? The performance is an eerily familiar, modern interpretation of Molière's timeless classic.
Since its first version premiered in 1664, Molière's “Tartuffe” has been one of the most frequently performed and censored plays in the Western dramatic canon. Molière's best plays—including “Tartuffe,” “The Misanthrope,” “The Miser,” and “The School for Wives”—constantly courted controversy, daring to challenge seventeenth century Paris's powerful, pious, and sanctimonious. Given its themes, “Tartuffe” continues to resonate with contemporary audiences.
Director Mark Cosdon's production has been reset some three hundred years later to 1964. “The 1960s were a time of enormous change, both in this country and in the Catholic Church,” explained Cosdon. “I wanted to suggest the increasing tensions between the generations—parents, children, grandparents. And, in the immediate wake of Vatican II and the Catholic Church's reformation, I knew “Tartuffe's” themes would echo and provoke.”
Cosdon, whose previous Playshop credits include “The Shape of Things,” “Uncommon Women and Others,” and “Anything to Declare?” suggests that “Tartuffe's” audiences will enter a time-warp of sorts. “Our production's designers, Marty Marchitto and Gail Kralj, have painstakingly captured the look and feel of a quintessential early 1960s' suburban home and its residents. I think our audiences will really enjoy that feeling of ‘Oh my gosh, I remember that!’ And of course, I've underscored the production with a host of 1960s' music, including the Beatles and Elvis Presley.”
The play features Sam Kaye (Denver, CO) as Orgon, Caity Smith (Erie, PA) as Elmire, Thom Och (Pittsburgh, PA) as Damis, Nichole Smith (Lower Burrell, PA) as Mariane, and Shaun Hayden (Wilmette, IL) as Tartuffe. The sets and lights have been designed by Martin Scott Marchitto and the costumes designed by Gail Kralj. Meredith Sonnen (Washington, PA) is the production's stage manager.
Tickets for “Tartuffe” are $7.50 for adults; $5 for non-Allegheny students, senior citizens and Allegheny employees; and free for Allegheny students with identification. For more information or to order tickets for “Tartuffe”, contact the Playshop Theatre Box Office at 814-332-3414.
