During two years at AACC, a theater student might have opportunities to perform in a comedy, a tragedy, a musical and a classical play.
Madeline Austin, a theater professor, said the theater program’s faculty plans mainstage productions every semester to offer as much variety to students as possible.
“We’re trying to do a musical every other year,” Austin said. “This year we’re doing a Shakespeare play … so that we produce actors … who’ve had an introduction to both contemporary and classical work.”
Austin will direct Theatre AACC’s performance of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” on Nov. 8-10 and 15-17 in the Kauffman Theater.
Over the last four years, Theatre AACC has put on the musical “Little Shop of Horrors,” the courtroom drama “Twelve Angry Jurors,” the comedy “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” and the ancient Greek tragedy “Antigone.”
Austin said one of her goals is for theater students to get exposure to more modern playwrights.
“It would be nice to introduce a play that was a great play or well-known at one time and has been forgotten because we don’t read as much,” Austin said. “Who hasn’t seen ‘A View from the Bridge’ or ‘Death of a Salesman?’ I mean, these are great plays.”
On top of the mainstage productions once a semester, the theater puts on additional small productions.
Last year, the theater showed a staged reading of “Hurricane Diane,” an environmental comedy written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Madeleine George. This year, the department will show a staged reading of David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Proof” on Sept. 27-28 at 8 p.m. and Sept. 29 at 2 p.m. in Humanities 112 with two different casts.
In a staged reading, actors perform with scripts in hand, usually without sets or costumes.
Austin said Theatre AACC puts on staged readings to offer actors extra opportunities that normally wouldn’t be within the department’s budget, and to show unique and striking modern plays. Additionally, Austin said, staged readings aren’t as much of a time commitment for actors.