University of Puget Sound’s Senior Theatre Festival (STF) will begin April 5-6 at Norton Clapp Theatre. Presented over three weekends, the festival features three plays directed by Puget Sound seniors Jack Aldisert, Hanna Woods, and Carly Dryden.
The series will kick off with three performances of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, directed by Aldisert. It will continue in late April and early May with productions of Christopher Fry’s The Lady’s Not for Burning and Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive, directed by Woods and Dryden, respectively.
“The first time I read The Lady’s Not for Burning, it delighted me,” says Woods. “I was equally delighted on the second reading. By the third reading, it was clear that this was no fluke, and I must direct this play.”
“The play is concerned with enormous metaphysical mystery and other quite large and important things, but it is constantly laughing,” continues Woods. “It cries a little bit at the enormity of life and then laughs very hard at it.”
The three plays are the final projects for Aldisert, Woods, and Dryden and fellow theatre arts majors and seniors Isabel Lane, Robbie Diaz, McKenna Johnson, Clara Jacobs, and Molly McLean. The casts and crews are comprised of Puget Sound students, and theatre arts faculty members support the productions.
“As soon to be theatre arts professionals, the Senior Theatre Festival could be our only chance to make all the decisions,” says Isabel Lane, a senior theatre arts major and production manager of STF. “You better believe we are not taking that lightly and will be giving each performance our all.”
*Release written by Isabel Lane '19*
Senior Theatre Festival at Norton Clapp Theatre
Hedda Gabler
April 5: 7:30 p.m.
April 6: 2 and 7:30 p.m.
The Lady’s Not for Burning
April 19: 7:30 p.m.
April 20: 2 and 7:30 p.m.
How I Learned to Drive
May 3: 7:30 p.m.
May 4: 2 and 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $8 general; $6 seniors, students/staff/faculty, military
Tickets available at Wheelock Information Center, 253.879.3100, or tickets.pugetsound.edu