The Mohawk Valley Community College Theater Program and Drama Club will present three short plays by American playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, April 18 and 19, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 20, in Schafer Theater, Francis A. Wilcox Hall, at the College’s Utica Campus. Admission is $10 for the public, $5 for MVCC employees, and free for MVCC students. For ticket information, visit mvcc.edu/tickets.
The plays — “Queens of France,” “Love and How to Cure It,” and “Such Things Only Happen in Books” — are being directed by MVCC students under the guidance of Drama Club Advisor and Assistant Professor Thomas Schink and are produced with special arrangement with Concord Theatricals.
Queens of France
Directed by Kelsey Zimmerman
“Queens of France” is a short comedy in which a charlatan lawyer preys on vulnerable women, convincing each that she is the rightful Queen of France as a descendant of the long-lost Dauphin, who fled Paris for New Orleans at the age of 10 during the French Revolution. Tantalized by visions of wealth, palaces, and power, each victim responds in her own fashion to this preposterous revelation.
Love and How to Cure It
Directed by Gianna LaBella
“Love and How to Cure It” is a melodramatic comedy set in London on the stage of the Tivoli Palace of Music in April 1895. A young man is hopelessly in love with a teenage music hall dancer who can’t stand him, thinks he is stalking her (which he is), and feels that he is going to shoot her (which he isn’t). Because she rejects him, he decides to kill himself. The girl’s aunt, an actress and singer, and their friend, an over-the-hill comedian still mourning the death of his wife, try to intervene to “cure” him and at the same time, teach the thwarted lover what true love really means.
Such Things Only Happen in Books
Directed by Rachel Hartman
“Such Things Only Happen in Books” tells the story of a lordly novelist John, his wife, their doctor, their maid, her brother, and a visiting stranger who are caught up in various deceptions, illusions, and mysteries — including a murder mystery in a haunted house. John’s two pleasures in life are losing at solitaire and lecturing his wife about how there are no plots in life. Of course, his wife is cheating on him with the family doctor, who reveals not only their infidelity but a whole network of jailbreaks, murders, mutilations, and buried treasure — all of which have taken place in John’s house.
MVCC’s Liberal Arts & Sciences: Theater AA degree program provides a strong foundation in liberal arts while preparing students to transfer into a bachelor’s degree program in drama (literature) or theater (acting or technical). The Drama Club presents stage productions and demonstrates new and classical techniques in interpreting various dramatic works through acting, set/costume work, and sound/lighting production. Learn more about the MVCC Theater program.