`A Beggar’s Opera’ premieres Oct. 4 in Russell Auditorium

“A Beggar’s Opera” is quickly gathering attention as one of the funniest plays to be presented this year.

The producer of this play said, “Few people in Milledgeville have seen `A Beggar’s Opera;’ that’s part of the reason it was selected.”

“A Beggar’s Opera” is considered to be the first musical, written long before Broadway was even a dirt road. Written by John Gay in 1728, it was an answer to and a satire of the Italian Operas at the time.

“A Beggar’s Opera” is a play-within-a-play. In the ‘frame,’ we are watching a play written by a Beggar (Nick Thompson), which is being performed by forlorn prisoners from an 18th century London prison to entertain spectators at the hanging of a notorious highwayman. Within the frame, the story revolves around a comic love triangle. Mr. Peachum (Steven Ford) fences stolen goods and earns extra money by informing on unproductive members of his organization to collect the reward. He and his wife (Karen Page) are dismayed to discover that their daughter Polly (Kelli Pierce) has married the highwayman MacHeath (freshman Bradley Bergeron).

“Do you think your father and I would have stayed together so long if we had ever been married?” Mrs. Peachum exclaims.

We then follow a series of betrayals, escapes, and comic intrigue, most of which revolve around MacHeath, Polly, and another possible “wife” of MacHeath, Lucy Lockit, the jailer’s daughter (Diane Sullivan). The play ends, as it should, with a cheerful chorus of all the players.

In this play, talented freshmen will make their debut, and veterans and dedicated actors will return from years past.

This year’s guest director is Melanie Martin Long. She is a successful director who has worked in Atlanta and is now working in New York. She is doing her own version of the play, so it will be like people are seeing this 200-year-old play in a new light for the first time.

“I can always tell who is seeing a play because they have to for a class by who sits in the back,” said Bilderback, assistant professor and Coordinator of Theatre and Music. “But I think this is a chance to encounter a piece of western literature without having to read it. I think one can get more out of it if you sit in the front and experience it first hand.”

The performances will be held on Oct. 4, 5 and 6 at 8 p.m. in Russell Auditorium. A matinee show will be on Oct. 7 at 2 p.m. in Russell Auditorium as well. The costs are $2 for GC&SU students with ID; $6 for non-GC&SU students, GC&SU faculty, and senior citizens; and $10 general admission.

Students are encouraged to come and support their fellow students and to see something new.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 28 2001. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry