Shakespearean Actors Return to Campus

The American Shakespeare Center, formerly known as Shenandoah Shakespeare, a national professional touring troupe of Shakespearean actors from Staunton, Va., (where they perform in a re-creation of Shakespeare's indoor theatre, the Blackfriars Playhouse) will visit Fairmont State on January 25-27, 2007, for a series of performances.

Productions to be presented are "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Julius Caesar" and "Cyrano de Bergerac." Fairmont State GEAR UP is the sponsor for the company.

Public presentations of the plays are as follows: Thursday, January 25, at 7:30 p.m., "A Midsummer Night's Dream;" Friday, January 26, at 7:30 p.m., "Julius Caesar;" and Saturday, January 27, at 7:30 p.m., "Cyrano de Bergerac." All performances will be in Wallman Hall Theatre. Tickets are available through the Box Office: (304) 367-4240.

Educational workshops will be available throughout the week of Jan. 21, 2007, some in the evening, some during the week and one on Saturday morning. Admission to all workshops will be free. For times and more specific information on the workshops, call Marian Hollinger at (304) 367-4300.

Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" has been repeatedly filmed, televised and performed since its inception. It is a story of couples, thwarted love, restored love, weddings, fairies, dreams and happy endings. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular and enduring comedies.

In quite another vein is the Bard's "Julius Caesar," a history play set in ancient Rome. It is a story of power grown arrogant Caesar, of enemies determined to destroy him and of a friend to Caesar who seeks to right the wrongs done the Roman ruler. There is war, of course, and the bravery of Brutus, who killed Caesar, and the emergence of Marc Antony as a contender for Roman leadership.

The final offering of the company is Edmond Rostand's French classic, "Cyrano de Bergerac." The protagonist is a poet and guardsman, cursed with a nose of enormous size. The nose becomes, in one of the most famous monologues of French theatre, a character in its own right. This, too, is the story of thwarted love--Cyrano's for his cousin, Roxane. Sacrificing his own happiness, Cyrano uses his great literary gift to bring Roxane and her beloved (who is also Cyrano's friend) Christian together. There is, at the end of the play, reconciliation of a sort, and a death.