“The Threepenny Opera,” Bertolt Brecht's harsh satire on the bourgeois Weimar Republic, set to music by Kurt Weill, comes to the Yulman Theater stage in a production by Union College Theater and Dance.
The director is William A. Finlay, professor of theater and director of the Yulman Theater. Finlay said that “this has a contemporary message, it's a musical with guts.” He added: “This production is very large for a theatre program of this size. We don't typically do musicals here at Union, but this one had something to say to the students, the artists and the faculty.”
The set designed by Professor of Theatre, Charles Steckler, will incorporate “environmental style theatre.” The entire theatre will be used, and the audience is literally surrounded by cast members, at times, instead of keeping everything up on stage. The 4-piece orchestra will be conducted by Adrien Gleason, a recent graduate of the Crane School of Music.
Lloyd Waiwaiole, the College's costumer, has designed and built all of the costumes. “They are spectacular,” said Finlay. “He's made stunning representations of Victorian-era London.”
Performances run Thursday through Saturday, May 19 to 21, at 8 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday, May 27 and 28, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, May 29, at 2 p.m. For tickets and information, call the Yulman Theater box office at 388-6545.