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ISU Theatre students perform at international festival
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Three performing arts students at Iowa State University will travel to
Scotland later this summer, as ISU Theatre participates for the first
time in the international Edinburgh Festival.
Kevin Geiken and Scott Morehead, both May 2005 graduates of Iowa State,
and Melanie Snow, who anticipates graduating in August, represent the
entire cast of ISU Theatre's production of "The Complete Works of
William Shakespeare - 'Abridged.'" The trio, along with Robin Stone,
assistant professor in ISU Theatre, will be at the Edinburgh Festival
in early August.
The Edinburgh Festival, whose origins began after the end of World War
II, is the world's largest performing arts festival. The Iowa State group
will present "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare" five times during
the festival, which features other performances by hundreds of U.S. college
and university theatre programs.
"The Complete Works of William Shakespeare" parodies Shakespearean
actors in an hour-long production that includes all of 37 Shakespeare's
plays.
"Every Shakespearean work is mentioned," said Robin Stone, former
assistant professor in ISU Theatre, who traveled to Scotland with the
students as the play's director. "'Hamlet' and 'Romeo and Juliet'
are given a lot more time than some of the other plays however.
"You take the whole play and boil it down to say 10-15 minutes. The actors
say the famous lines and move on."
"Othello" is rapped. "Julius Caesar" takes maybe 10
seconds. There are no sets. All the props and costumes of the three fit
into one suitcase.
"It's fast and furious," Geiken said. "We switch costumes and props quickly.
But the audience can see which characters we're playing through the lines
and gestures."
Despite the parody-nature of the production, the three ISU Theatre actors
know they have to be accurate wherever they performed the show.
"You can't screw up the famous Shakespearean lines," Morehead said.
The three performers were chosen for the Scotland trip after being part
of a larger cast of a production during the 2004 summer session. The new
version of ISU Theatre's play will be performed Friday and Saturday, July
8-9 and July 15-16, at 7:30 p.m. in the Memorial Union's Maintenance Shop.
Tickets are $10 for general admission, $9 for senior citizens and $5 for
students with tickets available at the door.
Then July 21-24, the group will perform at the Iowa Fringe Festival in
Des Moines.
Geiken, Morehead and Snow were chosen because of their talents and their
"enormous contributions to the department" according to Jane
Cox, director of ISU Theatre.
"We feel it is important for students in theatre to have an international
experience," Cox said. "The Edinburgh Festival is one of the great gatherings
of performers from all over the world."
"We all hope to stay involved with theatre now that we've graduated and
this was a great opportunity for us to make connections and understand
our craft even more," Geiken said.
Melanie Snow, Kevin Geiken and Scott Morehead.
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