Ithaca College Theatre Announces Performance Season

Ithaca College Theatre this year will present seven productions that offer passion, satire, and tragedy.

The season begins with Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s riveting classic of allegiance, love, and loss. In immortal verse, this tragic romance conveys the seething tension between two rival clans. The show will have previews on October 2 and 3, with opening night October 4. It will then run October 9-14.

The musical Parade, with book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, is based on the true story of Leo Frank, a Jew accused of murdering a young girl in Georgia in 1915. Preview performances for this Tony Award-winning play will be November 6 and 7. The show opens on November 8 and runs through November 10.

Ithaca College Theatre’s third production, Elinor Jones’s A Voice of My Own, is offered separately from the subscription package. Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s extended essay "A Room of One’s Own," the play depicts female writers from 600 B.C. to the 20th century. The show will have preview performances December 4 and 5, then run December 6-8.

Ithaca College Theatre and the School of Music will present Three Operas in February. This is a new twist on the annual opera production, giving audiences the opportunity to see and hear three one-act operas that are rarely staged. Mozart’s The Impresario follows two self-absorbed prima donnas battling for top billing; Samuel Barber’s A Hand of Bridge takes a look at the secret thoughts of two married couples playing a game of bridge; and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Riders to the Sea, based on the play by John Millington Synge, tells the story of a woman who must cope with the tragic loss of her loved ones. After a preview performance on February 13, Three Operas will appear February 15, 17, 19, 21, and 23.

Thirty years of collaboration between John Kander and Fred Ebb are celebrated in the award-winning musical revue The World Goes ’Round. Featured songs include "All That Jazz" from Chicago, "Money, Money" from Cabaret, and the title songs from New York, New York and Kiss of the Spider Woman. After a preview performance on February 20, the musical opens February 22 and continues with performances on February 26 and 28, and March 2.

Ithaca College Theatre’s next production is the satirical play The Colored Museum, by George C. Wolfe. Eleven vignettes explore the complex history and internal struggles of African Americans. The production will have previews March 26 and 27 and run March 28-30 and April 2-6.

The 2001-2 theater season comes to a close with Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, a poignant and comic tale of changes faced by a privileged Russian family on the eve of the 1917 revolution. This masterpiece will have preview performances on April 23 and 24 and run April 25-27.

The price of a season ticket for six of the productions ranges from $24.00 to $42.00, giving subscribers a discount of up to 20 percent off single-ticket prices. Season-ticket buyers are also given the option of purchasing single tickets at a discount for the December production of A Voice of My Own, which is not included in the season subscription package. Other benefits include first choice of best seats, the ability to exchange tickets to attend another performance, and an audience newsletter. For a season brochure and additional information on ticket prices and group discounts call Brian Falck, audience services manager, at 274-3915. The single-ticket prices range from $3.50 to $9.00. Evening performances will begin at 8:00 p.m., with matinees at 2:00 p.m.