<nd pending renovations in the Weitz, the science complex, and even the Mini Bald Spot, campus is buzzing with change. Carleton theater also offers a refreshing twist from its usual routine, with only two shows scheduled for fall term: one ETB show and one Players production. Both shows, however, will feature large ensembles and compelling, timely stories sure to satisfy theater-goers.
Carleton’s Experimental Theater Board (ETB) is a non-departmental, non-musical student theater group that typically produces two to four full-length plays each term. Carleton ETB shows are directed, acted, and designed by students and typically feature small casts. This term is unique for ETB in that it offers a single one-act show with a relatively large cast, comprised of fifteen students.
This fall’s ETB show is a 2005 one-act written by Alan Haehnel entitled Nora’s Lost. It will be directed by Erin Gustafson ’19, one of four theater majors in her class. Nora’s Lost centers on the memories, relationships, and poetry of Nora Blodget, an elderly woman who suffers from dementia. Nora wanders off into the forest on a cold night in pursuit of a vision of her deceased husband. On her journey, Nora relives some of the most meaningful experiences that shaped her life. “Not only is this a poignant and touching story worth hearing,” said Gustafson, “but we also have an unusually large cast for an ETB show, so all should come and enjoy some theater and support your fellow Carls 9th weekend!” The show will run 9th Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Little Nourse Theater.
Also running this term will be the Carleton Players Production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui), a 1941 play by German playwright Bertolt Brecht.
The Carleton Players is a student-run group that assists in the production of the theater department’s shows. The Players produce one faculty or guest-directed show per term.
Roger Bechtel, Chair of Theater and Dance at Carleton, will be directing the fall 2017 Players production, which will feature a cast of twenty-six.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui follows the rise of fictitious Chicago mobster, Arturo Ui, in the 1930s as he strives for dominance over a protective racket called the Cauliflower Trust.
The piece is a thinly-veiled satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in the years leading up to World War II, with each character having a historical counterpart.
While The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui features many elements of dark comedy, it remains consistent with Brecht’s epic style of theater and draws numerous parallels to Shakespeare’s Richard III.
Although the show is nearly eighty years old, new layers of meaning are bound to shine through in the Players interpretation, given the context of the current political climate.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui will be thought-provoking, harrowing, and uncannily relevant in the world of today.
It will run in the Weitz Theater at 7:30pm on October 20th, 21st, 26th, 27th, and 28th and at 2pm on October 22nd.
Despite its unusually small lineup, this term is bound to be a big one for Carleton theater, offering two shows that promise to be large in both size and substance.