WCU's Dept. of Theatre & Dance Presents Eurydice November 17 - 20
West Chester University’s Department of Theatre & Dance presents EURYDICE by Sarah Ruhl from November 17 - 20, 2022. Directed by Associate Professor of Theatre Leonard Kelly, EURYDICE runs Thursday - Saturday, November 17 – 19, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, November 20 at 2:00 p.m. in the MainStage Theatre, E.O. Bull Center for the Arts, 2 E. Rosedale Avenue, West Chester. General admission tickets are $12 at www.wcupatix.com.
EURYDICE reimagines the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice must journey to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost love. She begins to discover that the cost of living again can sometimes exceed the cost of staying dead. Through humor and wit, Sarah Ruhl’s play transforms a traditional myth into a contemporary meditation on love worth grieving for.
EURYDICE is by American playwright Sarah Ruhl. It premiered in 2003, opened Off-Broadway in
2007, and was nominated for the 2008 Drama Desk Award. Ruhl adapted EURYDICE for the libretto of an opera by the same name, which premiered in 2020 and received
a production at the Metropolitan Opera in November, 2021.
Director Leonard Kelly says, “We look to expose our theatre students to a wide variety of plays throughout our season and to produce the work of at least one female playwright each season. I am a huge fan of Sarah Ruhl. Uniquely American, her plays feel very contemporary and are written with a lightness. The quality of her poetic text and the way that she distills language is beautiful.”
Kelly adds, “Though this play may be lesser known, I invite audiences to come see this work because it is a wonderful production of a beautiful play by an important playwright.”
The title character of EURYDICE is played by theatre major Kendall Collins, a first-year student from Casper, Wyoming.
Collins says, “There have been so many versions of this ancient and tragic Greek myth.
What I love about Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation is that the character of Eurydice is a strong
and independent woman rather than just Orpheus’s muse. She is not a maiden in distress
who needs to be saved. I am honored to be able to craft a character that is different
from what is so often portrayed.”
Collins adds, “This play also deals with grief in a really beautiful and touching way. It is my hope that audiences take from it the importance of living in the moment and appreciating each day.”
Other members of the cast include: Maggie Clifford (Chorus), Sophie Cox (Chorus), David Gold (Orpheus), Chloe Hyde (Big Stone), Glenn Kelly Janis (Man), Lauren Kuerschner (Loud Stone), Danielle Margarite (Chorus), Daniel Michel (Father), Sophia Morgan (Little Stone).
The Department of Theatre and Dance at West Chester University, an accredited institution of the National Association of Schools of Theatre, prepares students for the professional and the academic worlds of Theatre and Dance, while raising student awareness of civility, diversity, creativity, problem solving and social responsibility. The department offers a BA Theatre degree program with elective concentrations in Musical Theatre, Performance, and Design and Production, in addition to a dance minor and theatre minor.