2012 Theatre Season

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  Into the Woods

  Fall 2012
  Into the Woods starts with familiar fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, but very soon asks hard questions about the meaning of community, and how we treat each other. Witches can be right; Giants can be good. Supported by a full orchestra, the stirring music of Stephen Sondheim is brought to life to remind us that even though the “woods” are dark and dim, our strength lies in the fact that we all depend on you, me, her and him.

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  Mysteries ... and Smaller Pieces

  Spring 2012
  Mysteries ... and Smaller Pieces is a collective creation by The Living Theatre that changed theatrical history. Mysteries is the first play to be presented on the world’s major stages without fictional characters, plot, scenery or costumes. The virtually wordless composition redefines the nature of theater as pure communication between performers and audience. Relying on nonverbal sounds and improvised actions, Mysteries invokes the Dionysian sources of drama, offering the audience the opportunity of assisting in a series of rituals meant to liberate the actor’s deepest resources.

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  The Crucible

  Fall 2012
  “I have given you my soul, leave me my name!” cries John Proctor, as he rages against the atrocities occurring at Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. This production will be part of a community-wide conversation centered on the question “What are you willing to put your name to?” Described as a “gripping” and “powerful drama,” this Tony-award winning play depicts a dark time in colonial Massachusetts, when fear and greed incited the persecution of innocents accused of witchcraft. Broadway star and 1958 DePauw University graduate David Cryer will portray the fiery Deputy-Governor in a production of The Crucible at his alma mater in November. Cryer and his wife, choreographer and actress Britt Swanson, will join a cast of students and local actors Larry Sutton (DePauw professor emeritus of communication and theatre) and Jack Randall Earles in the Tony Award-winning play by Arthur Miller.

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  The Heidi Chronicles

  Spring 2012
  What has the Women’s Movement done for women? The Heidi Chronicles, the 1989 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Wendy Wasserstein asks this and other questions by tracing the life of a female art historian. Wasserstein’s main character, Heidi Holland, comes of age during the pivotal years of the Women’s Movement. Through her relationships with both men and women, we watch her struggle to determine what women have really gained and at what cost. The play has a wonderful mixture of probing intellectual questions and old-fashioned theatrical humor. Come see what the New York Daily News called, “not just a funny play, but a wise one.”