Thomas Aims for Laughs in Bald Soprano
A rotating cast of eight actors perform Eugéne Ionesco’s brilliantly funny farce “The Bald Soprano” Oct. 22-24, 29-31 in Westmont’s Porter Theatre at 8 p.m. General admission is $10, $5 for student and seniors.
“Most of the actors are playing multiple roles and each performance will feature a different combination of actors playing a different combination of roles,” says Theater Arts Professor Mitchell Thomas, who directs the play. “Essentially, no two performances will be alike so audiences will be able to come again and again to rediscover the play as the actors perform it fresh each time.”
Ionesco’s play, which was originally premiered in 1950, has undergone a new translation by American playwright Tina Howe.
“Ionesco described this play a tragedy of language as the characters lose their ability to communicate with one another and are literally reduced to sound and fury in the final scene,” Thomas says. “In the play, language is the only vehicle for character due to the absurdist and contradictory structure of the piece. I speak, therefore I am. When speech devolves or is lost, what is left? In an age of Twitter, sound bites, email, and Facebook, I think the question of how we communicate and whether we are really saying anything at all is incredibly relevant, and happens to also be funny in Ionesco’s play.”
Thomas recently appeared in the roles of Othello and Isabel in a fusion of Othello/Measure for Measure directed by Lilia Abedjieva of the Bulgarian National Theatre. His recent directing projects have focused on the generation of new plays, working directly with playwrights. His last production of “Muéveme, Muévete” was an original bilingual site-specific piece written by a playwriting student. But for the first fall performance Thomas wanted to direct a lighter play.
“I was looking to do something that would be a rollicking good time for audiences,” Thomas says. “This play is fantastically funny and has been hilarious to work on in rehearsals. What's brilliant about Ionesco, though, is his ability to make us laugh even as the play contains an undercurrent of fear and desperation in the lives of the characters.”
The cast features first-year actors Sam Martin, Spencer Fox, and Shawnee Witt; sophomore actress Brittany Chaco; junior actresses Jessie Drake and Hannah Rae Moore; and senior actresses Jessica Papp Marie Ponce.
“I have been heavily influenced by time theory in my concept of the play and the casting and performance concept reflects those ideas,” Thomas says. “I hope audiences laugh themselves to tears and enjoy the opportunity to witness one of the seminal works of a brilliant and rarely performed modern master playwright.”