The Fullerton College Theatre Department will be working hard to bring to the stage the many plays and musicals debuting this semester.
“Look Homeward Angel” by Ketti Frings and based on Thomas Wolfes’ novel under the same name, is set to perform on Friday, Oct. 7 through Saturday, Oct. 15 under the direction of Tim Espinosa.
According to Mela Hoyt-Heydon, the Fullerton College Theatre Arts Department coordinator, “It’s about an authentic American classic. This powerful and vital play captures the sardonic humor and the grief, both private and universal, of Wolfe’s novel about a youth coming of age.”
Hoyt-Heydon goes on to explain that the play concentrates on the last third of Wolfe’s story where Eugene Gant, his mother, is vividly portrayed. “[She] is obsessed by her material holdings and maintains barriers against the love of her family, his father, a stonecutter imprisoned by his failures, and the brother who never breaks away.”
“Big Love” by Charles L. Mee will be directed by Jenni-Lynn Brick and hits the stage on Thursday, Dec. 1 and will run through Sunday, Dec. 4.
Hoyt-Heydon describes “Big Love” as a “colossal, poetic work that explores the hunger for independence, the burden of tradition, the shape and size of love and the hope for a safe place in a society at peace.”
Based on “The Suppliant Woman” by Aeschylus, the stage play takes an ancient plot and updates it.
According to Hoyt-Heydon, it is “an explosively theatrical hybrid, where the vaudevillian tragicomedy follows fifty brides who flee their fifty grooms and seek refuge in a villa on the coast of Italy. The fifty grooms catch up with the brides and mayhem ensues. Complete with grooms in flight suits, women throwing themselves to the ground, occasional pop songs, romantic dances and even one bride who falls in love.”
“The Spitfire Grill in Concert” will be performed on Thursday, Dec. 8 and directed by Tim Espinosa.
The story follows a feisty parolee named Percy to a small town in Wisconsin where she finds a place for herself working at Hannah’s Spitfire Grill. The grill is up for sale, but there seems to be no one to take the only eatery in the depressed town.
Hoyt-Heydon explains that this is when “the newcomer Percy suggests to Hannah that she raffle it off. The entry fee is $100 and the best essay on why you want the grill wins. Soon, mail is arriving by the wheelbarrow. Things are definitely cookin’ at the Spitfire Grill.”
The Theatre Arts Department will close out the semester on Friday, Dec. 9 with the production of “An Evening of Comedy Improv”, produced by Ron Michaelson.
According to Hoyt-Heydon, the performance will be “an evening of comedy improvisation performed by the students enrolled in THEA 122 Improvisation for Theatre Film and Television.”
Hoyt-Heydon is excited for this semester because there are so many possibilities for the students.
“There are equal opportunities for both men and women in the acting roles available,” she explains. “There are many opportunities for our design and stage management students to design or assist on the shows. There are great sets and costumes to build for our technical students.”
Hoyt-Heydon goes on to say that many of the costume students participated in Costume College over the summer, a national costuming convention. Several students even participated in a 9-day workshop led by British tailor Graham Cottenden.
For further information about what the theatre department is doing this semester or for ticket information you can go to their website.
