[NEohioPAL] Lake Erie College theatre department to perform "The Good Woman of Setzuan"

[Lawry, Kathleen (Public Relations and Marketing Specialist)]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact:   Kathleen Lawry            

             Public Relations and Marketing Specialist

Office:      440.375.7230    

Date:      Oct. 22, 2007

 

Lake Erie College theatre department to perform "The Good Woman of
Setzuan" 

 

(PAINESVILLE, Ohio) - The Lake Erie College theatre department will take
the stage to perform the "Good Woman of Setzuan" Nov. 8-10 and 15-17 at
8:00 p.m. and Nov. 11 at 2:30 p.m. in the C.K. Rickel Theatre of the
Fine Arts Building. 

 

Lake Erie College's production of Bertolt Brecht's "The Good Woman of
Setzuan" is a children's fairy tale, a moral fable, a poignant call of
distress and a spur to individual and social action. With life-size
puppets, grotesque masks and a set that surrounds the audience and
literally pulls it in, director Terence Cranendonk, visiting assistant
professor of theatre, challenges and confronts theatergoers with the
head on assault of a three-ring circus. Original music composed
exclusively for the Lake Erie College production completes this unique
re-imagining of Brecht's contemporary standard. 

 

In "The Good Woman of Setzuan," three gods visit a semi-westernized
Chinese city, prompted by the incessant complaints of the earth's poor
and miserable inhabitants, who find it impossible to follow the gods'
moral precepts for being "good." Reluctant to change either their rules
or the conditions of the people living on earth, the gods resolve to
find just one good person, as proof that they may leave the world as it
is.

 

The gods find their good person in a young prostitute, Shen-Te, when she
offers them a place to stay for the night. In order to keep her from
practicing prostitution, they give her a thousand silver dollars to
support herself and continue her good deeds. When she tries to help her
fellow slum-dwellers; however, she soon learns that they can be greedy,
rapacious and manipulative. Shen-Te, herself, increasingly turns to
deceit and exploitation in order to continue "to do good." 

 

Originally produced in 1943, Brecht's play is a triumphant example of
the practical application of his ideas of an "epic theatre," in which
critical involvement of the audience is emphasized over empathy for the
play's characters. 

 

In Cranendonk's production at Lake Erie College, "The Good Woman of
Setzuan," is a vehicle for the exploration of such questions as "What is
goodness?," "Is it possible to practice virtue in an unvirtuous world?,"
and "Is goodness a function of social circumstance or of individual
character?"

 

Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for seniors and non-LEC students. For
information or to make a reservation, call the box office at
440.375.7450 or e-mail faboxoffice at lec.edu. Free parking is located off
Gillett Street near Andrews Osborne Academy.

 

 

Founded in 1856, Lake Erie College is a dynamic and progressive
institution of higher education. The College offers 27 undergraduate
majors, including a new program in equine entrepreneurship - the first
of its kind throughout the country. This coeducational college, grounded
in the liberal arts, enrolls just over 1,100 students of all ages and is
nationally recognized for its equine studies programs and international
learning opportunities for students.

 

###

 

 

Kathleen Lawry

Public Relations and Marketing Specialist

Lake Erie College

391 W. Washington St.

Painesville, OH 44077

Phone: 440.375.7230

Fax: 440.375.7204

E-mail: klawry at lec.edu <mailto:klawry at lec.edu>  

www.lec.edu <http://www.lec.edu/> 

 

 

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