Even though it doesn’t feel like spring has arrived just yet, AU’s various theatre groups are acting as if it has with a selection of plays sprouting out of its department.
Most D.C. theater companies are going to begin announcing their spring plan, including the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Here’s a comprehensive guide to events happening on campus over the spring semester.
AU Players
Tom, Dick and Harry
What: A madcap comedy involving three brothers and their foibles with alcoholism, illegal black market medical organs and their love lives.
When: March 27-30
Where: TBA
AU Players 10-minute Play Festival
What: The AU Players present their final show of the season with a series of short plays from six directors.
When: April 27
Where: TBA
The Rude Mechanicals
Julius Caesar
What: A clever re-imagining of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” transforms the classic play into a catty drama similar to “Mean Girls.”
When: Feb 27-28, March 1
Where: TBA
Cymbeline
What: The Rude Mechanicals take one of Shakespeare’s sprawling epics, chronicling the tales of a celtic king in New Orleans during the War of 1812.
When: March 20-22
Where: TBA
Women’s Initiative
_The Vagina Monologues _
What: Women’s Initiative stage Eve Ensler’s classic play The Vagina Monologues in honor of V-Day.
When: Feb 6-8
Where: The University Club, MGC 1-5
Department of Performing Arts
The Alchemist
What: Ben Jonson’s comedy, which Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed was one of the three most perfect plots in literature, tells the story of fraudulent characters attempting to create gold and the troubles they encounter attempting to do so.
When: Feb. 13-15
Where: Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre
Rent
What: A musical which in part is based on Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme” tells the story of a series of young artists struggling to live on the Lower East Side of New York City.
When: Feb 20-22, Feb 27-March 1
Where: Studio Theatre
Inherit the Wind
What: A staging of the classic and famously verbose play by Robert E. Lee and Jerome Lawrence that fictionalizes the Scopes Monkey trial in Alabama, where two lawyers vigorously argue about the case for evolution.
When: March 2014
Where: Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre
Senior Theatre Capstone
What: The final production of the year will involve the Senior class of 2014 putting on their own production as the accumulation of their experience at AU.
When: April 2014
Where: TBA
Dance
Spring Dance Concert: Agile, Mobile, Tactile
What: The dance faculty put on their annual spring concert featuring various soloists studying from within the department
When: April 2014
Where: Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre
Music
The Gorenman Piano Project: Liszt Edition
What: Yuliya Gorenman, distinguished musician in residence, presents another edition in her on-going series of piano recitals covering the works of composers from Schubert to Liszt.
When: March 22
Where: Abramson Family Recital Hall
The American University Symphony Orchestra plays Beethoven and Rautavaara
What: AU’s director of orchestral activities and most recent addition to the department, Yaniv Dinur, will conduct the AUSO in a night of featuring Rautavaara’s “Concerto for Birds and Orchestra” and Lutoslawski’s “Preludes and Fugue” along side Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
When: Feb 22-23
Where: Abramson Family Recital Hall
The American University Jazz Orchestra
What: Swing into the new semester when the AUJO takes to the stage to play some big Jazz numbers.
When: April 4
Where: Abramson Family Recital Hall
The American University Symphonic Band
What: The AUSB will perform with an ensemble of percussion, woodwinds and brass with Musician in Residence Marc Decker leading the pack.
When: April 11
Where: Abramson Family Recital Hall
The American University Chamber Singers
What: Daniel Abraham, associate professor in the Department of Performing Arts, brings together pieces from J.S. Bach and Mahler.
When: April 12-13
Where: Abramson Family Recital Hall
The AUSO and AU Chamber Singers Unite
What: Yaniv Dinur and Daniel Abraham team up with the AUSO and the AUCS to perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Mass in C Minor, K. 427”
When: April 25-26
Where: Abramson Family Recital Hall
For ticket information visit the AU ticketing site. Prices may vary.
