High hopes dashed
“From These Green Heights,” April 20-May 4
The Department of Theatre continues its first undergraduate theater season in April with a two-play mini-series on the theme “Dreams Deferred.”
The series opens with the North American premiere of Dermot Bolger’s “From These Green Heights,” which won Best New Irish Play of 2004. It chronicles the stories of two families against the backdrop of the infamous Ballymun Towers outside Dublin.
The seven 15-story tower blocks, built in the 1960s as a grand experiment in modern urban planning, came to symbolize poverty, crime and misery as they quickly deteriorated. The towers were demolished in 2004.
During a trip to Ireland over UWinteriM, theater students researched Irish language, heritage and culture. They also performed two plays at the Axis Art Center, located in the area where the Ballymun Towers once stood.
“From These Green Heights” is paired with Lorraine Hansberry’s American classic, “A Raisin in the Sun.”
It is Chicago in the 1950s, and Walter Lee and his sister Beneatha dream of better lives: to own a business, to be a doctor. Yet they remain blind to their mother’s dreams and struggles for a solid house and a home for her family.
“A Raisin in the Sun,” a classic of the American theatre, was the first play by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway, where it won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award.
The schedule for “From These Green Heights”: April 20-22, April 29 and May 4 at 7:30 p.m.; April 30 and May 6 at 2 p.m. For “Raisin in the Sun”: April 27-28 and May 5-6 at 7:30 p.m., April 29 and May 7 at 2 p.m. The performances are in the Mainstage Theatre, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd. Tickets are $10/general admission and $7/students and seniors. For tickets and information, phone 414-229-4308.
Tickets also are available at the Peck School of the Arts box office, located in the Zelazo Center, 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd. (access from the parking lot to the south of the building; free short-term parking immediately outside box office entrance). The box office is open Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The satellite box office in the Mainstage Theatre lobby opens one hour prior to performances.
Photos by Pete Amland
URL: http://www.uwm.edu/News/Features/06.04/Undergrad_Theater.html
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