[NEohioPAL] **FREE** KSU THEATRE STUDENTS STAGE “BAAL” MARCH 16, 17, 18

[EFTIHIA A TSENGAS]

KSU THEATRE STUDENTS STAGE  =93BAAL=94 IN MARCH
Kent, Ohio =96 Kent State University theatre majors and minors=92 Student=
=20
Theatre Festival takes place at 8:00 p.m. on March 16, 17 and 18 at=20
KSU=92s Music & Speech Center, Room B-005, on Main Street in Kent. =20
Director Douglas H. Snyder, a BA student at Kent State, and fellow=20
theatre students, have chosen to produce the shocking play =93Baal=94 by=20
German-born playwright, Bertolt Brecht. =20

Written while he was a university student, =93Baal=94 was Bertolt Brecht's=
=20
first full-length play and remains one of his most audacious and=20
shocking. The story traces the decline of a drunken and dissolute poet=20
who rejects the conventions and trappings of polite society. Baal roams=20
the countryside, womanizing and brawling. He spurns his pregnant=20
mistress, Sophie, who drowns herself. When he murders his friend Ekart,=20
he becomes a fugitive from the police. Defiantly aloof from the=20
consequences of his actions, Baal is nonetheless brought down by his=20
debauchery, leaving in his wake the corpses of deflowered maidens and=20
murdered friends. =20

Although the play has an original score written by Brecht, newly=20
composed music will be presented with this production.

Bertholt Brecht, who is considered a significant theatrical figure of=20
the twentieth century, was born in 1898 in Augsburg, Germany. In 1922,=20
Becht won the Kleist Prize (Germany=92s most prestigious literary award)=20
and was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize in 1955.  He created epic=20
theatre, in which the plot is episodic, there is little cause and=20
effect between scenes and character development is cumulative. Brecht=20
died in 1956.  It has been speculated by many that =93Baal=94 is partially=
=20
autobiographical.=20

Tickets are free, but reservations are required.  The School of Theatre=20
& Dance Box Office is located in the Music & Speech Center and is open=20
12 p.m. =96 5 p.m. Mondays =96 Fridays.  Call 330-672-2497 to make=20
reservations. =20

"There is strong stuff, both horrible and fascinating, in Baal."-New=20
York Times
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Effie A. Tsengas
PR/Marketing Director
School of Theatre & Dance
330-672-0113
etsengas at kent.edu