What would you do for a billion dollars?
That is the age-old question, put into a new context in the dark comedy “The Visit,” by Friedrich D�rrenmatt, opening in the Gladys G. Davis Theatre at the West Virginia University Creative Arts Center, Friday, April 13, at 7:30 p.m.
The play continues April 14 and April 17-21 at 7:30 p.m. and there will also be matinee performances at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 15 and Sunday, April 22.
“The Visit” depicts the one made by Madame Zachanassian, a famous billionairess, who returns to Guellen, the poverty-stricken town of her youth. Grand and grotesque, she is accompanied by two henchmen, her husband, a butler, and two blind eunuchs, along with a coffin, a caged black panther, and various pieces of luggage.
To rescue the town from its financial state, she offers the people a large sum of money, with only one stipulation: they must kill one of their townsmen—the man who “done her wrong” so many years ago.
Shocking, yes, but there are already whispers circulating in the shadows. The people of the town are desperately in need, but can justice be bought?
Part cautionary tale, part fable, the play addresses issues of morality and human nature in a way that you don’t want to miss.
New York City-based stage director and educator Victor Maog will be guest director for “The Visit.” Maog is considered one of the nation’s leading young Asian-American directors (Denver Post), and his award-winning work has reached more than half the continental United States. Collaborating with some of the nation’s most compelling artists, he creates plays and musicals that inspire dialogue, push theatricality, and reach out to both mainstream and marginalized audiences.
Moag has collaborated at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, Hartford Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Intar, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, New York Theatre Workshop, Lark Play Development Center, The New Group, MCC Theater, New Dramatists, and directed and taught for NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, the University of Pennsylvania, Fordham University, among others.
He has developed and directed new works, including his three-man adaptation of “The Tempest,” Grammy-winner John Selder’s hip-hop piece “News to Me,” Fred Ho and Ruth Margraff’s martial arts experimental dance work “Voice of the Dragon,” and traveled to Phnom Penh in preparation for his American staging of Him Sophy’s fusion of ancient instruments and rock-and-roll in “Where Elephants Weep,” a Cambodian rock opera. He was one of six directors in the United States to receive the prestigious 2004-06 National Endowment for the Arts/Theater Communications Group Career Development Award. For more information, see: www.victormaog.com/
According to student publicist Lindsay Dawson, Maog is collaborating with designers and cast in the School of Theatre & Dance to create a visually arresting, emotional world for audiences of “The Visit.”
The cast of “The Visit” features acting students Audrey Ahern as Madame Zachanassian and Greg Holt as Schill, her former lover with the price on his head. Other students in the ensemble are: Austin Barnett, C.J. Bonde, Alex Astrella, Justin “Tex” Griffiths, Nick Hanni, Lenny Janes, Ben Koontz, Megan Massie, Margo Matty, Adam Messenger, Gailyn Neutzling, Sarah Reddy, Chelsea Roper and Cody Wilson.
Production manager is assistant professor Steven Neuenschwander and technical director is student Ben Lauer. Scene design is by associate professor Robert Klingelhoefer, lighting design is by assistant professor Alan McEwen, and master electrician is student Clare Phelps. Sound design is by student Staci Hare and costume design is by associate professor Mary McClung.
“The School of Theatre & Dance is preparing this show with an aesthetic appeal that has never before been executed in a WVU production,” Dawson said.
“With inspiration from the ‘Theatre of Poverty’ era, set designs by professor Klingelhoefer include irregular textures, muted colors, and roughly projected images. Through the manipulation of these design elements, he creates the dreary and barren town in which the action of the show takes place.”
She said costume designer Mary McClung also executes her role in this production with talents rarely showcased on the WVU stage.
“This play provides a perfect medium for her skilled and varied treatment of the human form, juxtaposition of textures and colors, and use of costume crafts,” Dawson said. “She demonstrates such mastery by designing each character’s look to include a mask, as she plays on the idea of reality versus illusion, authentic versus synthetic, and organic versus artificial.”
The unique masks worn by each character in the play were constructed by McClung and her design students in the WVU Costume Studio.
Tickets for “The Visit” are $20 for the general public, $18 for WVU faculty and staff and senior citizens, and $15 for students. There is a group rate of $10 per ticket for groups of ten or more.
Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.com , the CAC or Mountainlair Box Offices, or by calling 304-293-SHOW.
The performance on Sunday, April 22, will be interpreted for the hearing impaired.
For more information on this production of “The Visit,” please call 304-293-2020 or email theatre@mail.wvu.edu.
-WVU-
CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu
Lindsay Dawson, Ldawson4@mix.wvu.edu
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