University Theatre closes season with 'A Bright New Boise'
calendar icon30 Mar 2017
Lincoln, Neb.--Theatre at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln completes its spring semester season with A BRIGHT NEW BOISE by Samuel D. Hunter. A BRIGHT NEW BOISE, directed by Chadwick Taylor in partial fulfillment of his Master of Fine Arts degree in Directing for Stage and Screen, tackles the prickly issues of faith, forgiveness and second chances. Performances are April 13 - 15 and 19 - 22 at 7:30 p.m. and April 23 at 2 p.m. in Howell Theatre, first floor, Temple Building, 12th & R streets.
Admission purchased in advance is recommended. Seating is general admission. The play is performed without intermission. Tickets may be purchased through the Lied Center Ticket Office, 301 North 12th street Monday through Friday 11:00 AM to 5:30 PM or on-line at unltheatretickets.com. Admission is $18, $16 faculty/staff & senior citizens, $12 students with ID and member of OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute).
Taylor explains, “The break room of a Hobby Lobby may seem an unlikely setting in which to find salvation from life’s setbacks and disappointments, yet it is just the sort of place where Samuel Hunter has said he is most likely to contemplate the fragility of humanity and what is, for many, the desperate need to believe in something beyond this earthly existence. It is often these sorts of situations wherein a belief in redemption and something better are most desperately needed and clung to, especially by individuals who have little else to sustain them. Will, the main character, struggles to protect his faith in God and to believe that ‘there are greater things in life. There have to be.’ Testing his faith and pleading for recognition from the universe, he beckons a rapture, a transcendent event in which souls will be freed from their earthly human vessels by a benevolent god and will ascend in a glorious light towards a perfect spiritual eternity. The imagined circumstances of the rapture and deliverance stand in dramatic contrast to the fluorescent-lit break room and the harsh realities of life’s shortcomings.”
Taylor comments on the characters, “While the circumstances of the play are bleak, there is a remarkable resilience, humor, and humanity to each of the characters. These relationships model redemption and faith, but they also model what Hunter has called the kernel of all of his plays: empathy. This is the singular theme of Samuel Hunter’s playwriting. Despite life’s challenges, there is humor – and hope – in the relationships characters forge with one another.”
CAST MEMBERS:
All cast members are undergraduates and in the Theatre Performance emphasis at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film.
Clayton Shellgren plays the leading character, Will. His brooding teenage son, Alex, is played by Jackson Belva.
Alex works at the Hobby Lobby with Leroy played by Simon Gissler, Anna played by Ciara Hergott, and their manager Pauline played by Karen Richards.
DESIGN TEAM
Dylan Warren, properties, undergraduate student;
Shannon Humiston, stage manager, undergraduate student;
Brendan Greene-Walsh, technical director, graduate student;
Alex Andersen, lighting, undergraduate student;
Rebecca Armstrong, costumes, graduate student;
Zachary Bartlett, projections, undergraduate student; and
Kaitlyn Peterson, scenic, undergraduate student.