Theater - 2001-2002

Production Staff

Cast List

Production Assistance

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged,) also known as The Complete Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged) is a parody of the plays written by William Shakespeare with all of them being performed (in shortened form) during the show by only three actors. Typically, the actors use their real names and play themselves rather than certain characters. The fourth wall is nonexistent in the performance with the actors speaking directly to the audience during much of the play, and some scenes involve audience participation. The director and stage crew also may be directly involved in the performance and become characters themselves.

The script contains many humorous footnotes on the text that are often not included in the performance. However, improvisation plays an important role and it is normal for the actors to deviate from the script and have spontaneous conversations about the material with each other or the audience. It is also common for them to make references to pop culture or to talk about local people and places in the area where performance is done. As a result, each performance can be vastly different from another, even with the same cast.

The play was written by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, and first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1987 and played for many years at the Criterion Theatre in London. It is notable for holding the (self-proclaimed) world record for the shortest-ever performance of Hamlet, clocking in at 43 seconds.

Production Staff

Cast List

Production Assistance

The Time of Your Life, a five-act play by American playwright William Saroyan that opened in 1939. This play was the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. It is set in a decrepit bar called Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace in San Francisco. Much of the action centers around Joe, a young loafer with money who encourages each of the bar's patrons in their eccentricities. Joe helps out a would-be dancer, Harry, and sets up his flunky, Tom, with a prostitute, Kitty Duval. The bar is also frequented by a number of colorful characters, including a frenetic young man in love, an old man who looks like Kit Carson, and an affluent society couple.  Critic John Brown Mason described this modern morality play as "gleeful and heartbreaking, tender and hilarious, probing and elusive."

Production Staff

Cast List

Production Assistance

Equus follows the story of psychologist Martin Dysart as he attempts to treat Alan, a young man who has a pathological, religious, and sexual fascination with horses. Shaffer was inspired to write Equus when he heard of a crime involving a 17-year-old who had blinded six horses in a small town near London. He set out to construct a fictional account of what might have caused the incident, without knowing any details of the crime. The play's action is something of a detective story, as Dysart tries to understand the cause of the boy's actions while wrestling with his own sense of purpose.