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Now Playing!
No reservations required.
Written by Dylan Thomas
Directed by Fran Teague
Playing June 18 through June 20, 2010
Imagine eavesdropping on someone else’s dreams. The audience can do that when Town & Gown Players presents Dylan Thomas’s radio play, UNDER MILK WOOD, June 18 and 19 at 8 pm and June 20 at 2 pm. The first half of the show lets us listen to the dreams of people from a Welsh village, while the second half lets us hear them in their everyday lives.
Director Fran Teague says, “Because Thomas was a poet, the dream section uses beautiful language about desire, and because he was a very funny man, the play as a whole will make the audience laugh at its wordplay and bawdy humor.” Thomas is known for poetry like “Fern Hill” and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” as well as for his holiday memoir, A Child’s Christmas in Wales.
Written in 1953 for the BBC, the play has over 60 roles, so the local cast of players will have to show some versatility since most play two or three people. Two narrators, John Vance and Catherine Clayton, guide the audience through the play. Many other Athens favorites will be onstage in the reader’s theater presentation, including Derek Adams, Terrell Austin, Kelly McGlaun Fields, Amy Miller, and Paul Rea.
Presented as part of the Town & Gown Second Stage series, the show has reduced ticket prices and no reserved seating.
Although it often presents shows that ordinarily would not appear on the Mainstage slate (because they are too controversial or unfamiliar to a general audience), Second Stage has included a number of titles that are often done as Mainstage productions elsewhere. The Town & Gown Second Stage Series offers a wide variety of shows--from comedies to dramas, from musical revues to original works. Those who direct and act in these Second Stage productions include some of the theatre's most experienced and talented performers, who come together on a small budget in order to add nuance and excitement to the theatre season.
Normally, the Second Stage shows run the weekend following the closing of a Mainstage show. No reservations are necessary, but patrons are advised to arrive fifteen minutes before curtain to guarantee a seat. General admission is $5.00.
Even though Town & Gown doesn't think of Second Stage productions as "big shows" (some have as few as two or three in the cast), there is scope for quite ambitious works. Look at this list of past entries: Julius Caesar, Amadeus, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Fool for Love, The Chairs, Burning Patience, Payback, The Gift of the Mayfly, Battery, Scrooge and Marley, The Buried Child, Bully, Arms and the Man, Soap Opera, The Ugly Duckling, The East-West Relation, Another Perfect Day in East Hampton, The Physicists, 'Round Robin, He Said She Said, Other People's Money, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, The Long Voyage Home and Other Plays of the Sea, Art, Misery, Henry V and several musical revues.
Town & Gown programs Second Stage a half-season at a time. Any T & G member may submit a Second Stage proposal. Submissions for the first half of the season are accepted until July 1 and those for the second half of the season are until November 1. You can download a submission form here. If you have questions or need more information, send an e-mail to our Second Stage Coordinator.
