ASU Theatre announces 2010-11 season, featuring four works, beginning Oct. 6

September 13, 2010 -- The Arkansas State University Theatre announces the
production schedule for the 2010-2011 theatre season. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. and all performances will be held in the Drama Theatre, Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro. Opening the season will be “Wonder of the World” by David Lindsay-Abaire. Nothing will prepare audiences for the dirty little secret Cass discovers in her husband’s sweater drawer.  It is so shocking that the heroine has no choice but to flee to the honeymoon capital of the world in a frantic search for the life she thinks she missed out on. It’s a wild ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel of laughs as Cass embarks on a journey of self discovery. Variety says, “Full frontal lunacy is on display…a most assuredly fresh and hilarious tragicomedy of marital discord run amok. Lindsay-Abaire’s flare for the absurd combines nicely with an ability to pull laughs out of any situation. ..absolutely hysterical.” Performance dates for “Wonder of the World” are Wednesday-Saturday, Oct. 6-9. This play contains adult language and subject matter.

The second show of the season is “Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music” by Lee Blessing This is a sharply drawn and very funny play about the personal heartaches and public eccentricities of two women living over a good-ole-boy bar in Houston, Texas.  Eve Wilfong, who lives over the “Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music Bar” is paid a visit by her niece Catherine Empanger, a novice nun who’s been asked to leave her convent. It seems Catherine suffers from a curious compulsion to yell obscenities at the wrong moment and even bark like a dog. Performance dates for “Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music” are Sunday-Monday, Nov. 14-15, and Thursday-Friday, Nov.18-19. This play contains adult language and subject matter.

For 2011, ASU Theatre will offer “The Butler Did It,” and “The Visit.” “The Butler Did It,” a comedy/thriller by Walter Marks and Peter Marks is deft and diabolically clever. This thriller mingles laughter and chills as it skillfully unwinds its twisted tale of murder and mayhem in the glittering world of the theatre. Anthony J. Lefcourt, writer and director, is rehearsing his new play, a classic whodunit in which all the characters are named Butler. With this play, he hopes to regain the success that has eluded him in recent seasons.   The New York Daily News says, “…a genuinely amusing burlesque of those good old ‘30s movie thrillers in which the killer is unmasked in the final moments.” Performance dates for “The Butler Did It” are Friday-Saturday, Feb. 25-26, 28, and Tuesday-Wednesday, March 1-2.  This play contains adult language and subject matter.

The final show of the 2010-2011 season will be “The Visit” by Friedrich Durrenmatt, adapted by Maurice Valency for American audiences. The play, a consummate and alarming Durrenmatt blend of hilarity, horror, and vertigo, takes place somewhere in Central Europe and tells of an elderly millionairess, who, merely on the promise of her millions, swiftly turns a depressed area into a boom town.

The Record says, “Durrenmatt has a wicked sense of the ridiculous…he combines laughter with a moralist’s outrage at the evil of money and power. He combines a poetic sense of irony with abrasive Brechtian social criticism.” The performance dates for “The Visit” are Friday-Saturday, April 15-16,and Tuesday-Wednesday, April 19-20. This play contains adult language and subject matter.

Tickets for all performances are $8 in advance, $10 at the door. All seating is reserved. Tickets should be purchased in advance at the ASU Central Box Office in the Convocation Center, by calling 972-ASU1, or online (http://www2.astate.edu/tickets/). Advanced reservations are highly recommended. Visit the ASU Theatre online at http://www.theatre.astate.edu/seasons/.

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