Egyptian Play
Takes Center Stage at EMU
HARRISONBURG -The EMU Theater is proud to presentt six
performances of its spring semester mainstage production, The World
is a Comedy, by one of Egypt's leading playwrights, Tawfiq Al-Hakim.
Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14 & 15 and Feb. 21
& 22 with matinees 2 p.m. Feb. 16 and 23 in EMU's Lehman Auditorium.
An additional, specially-priced performance for high school and other
youth groups is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 20.
An after-show discussion, including responses from Middle
Eastern members of the local community, will take place on Saturday,
Feb.22, immediately following the production.
Paul Hildebrand, associate professor of theater at EMU,
will direct the 15-member student cast in the two-hour production. Hildebrand
describes The World is a Comedy as "a dream-play, an absurdist,
comic romance.
"It is the story of an ordinary file clerk with
big ambitions, and a spunky, independent-minded young woman who works
in the office with him," Hildebrand said. "Together they go
'back to the future to find a new life … and create a new world,
a world without war.
"As we in the West focus on better understanding
the culture of our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters, this play of peace,
written by one of Egypt's leading playwrights, could not be more timely,"
the director stated.
According to Hildebrand, Tawfiq Al-Hakim, who lived 1899-1988,
"is revered in the Arab world as the father of the modern Arabic
theater, and yet scarcely anyone in the West has ever heard him. His life
spanned a century of changes in all aspects of human life, in the world
and in the Middle East. He wrote over 70 plays of social conscience, yet
only about a half-dozen have ever been translated and published in English.
The World is a Comedy is one of his best.
"Eastern Mennonite University promotes and teaches
global perspective as one of its educational hallmarks, and so, EMU Theater
is excited to present the work of Tawfiq Al-Hakim, to entertain us with
a theatrical look into the art, history and people of Egypt."
Admission to the play is $8 in advance and $10 at the
door and $5 for seniors and non-EMU students.
To reserve tickets, call
the EMU box office at 540-432-4582.
For more information on the life and works of Tawfiq
Al-Hakim, go to: www.sis.gov.eg/egyptinf/culture/html/tawfik.htm
Posted 1/10/03 |
