South theater
to open plays
about dreams

Continuing with a project that began in the fall, the South Campus theater department will offer two shows this semester that support its American Dreams theme.
The first performance, The Grapes of Wrath, is based on the John Steinbeck novel by the same name.
The Grapes of Wrath, winner of the 1940 Pulitzer Prize, is considered the cornerstone for Steinbeck’s 1962 Nobel Prize.
The play illustrates the dignity and spirit of man in desperate circumstances. It follows the fictional Joad family on its journey from Oklahoma’s “dust bowl” of the 1930s to the “promised land” of California.
The Joads, like thousands of farmers and sharecroppers in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and other states, were driven off the land during the dust bowl and Depression.
Performances are March 3-5 at 7:30 p.m. in the Carillon Theatre.
Molly Floyd, fine arts department chair, said the play was chosen because its historical and literary backgrounds offer educational value to many campus departments other than the theater department.
Patty McCormick, a retired TCC faculty member, will return to direct this production.
The second show of the semester is the musical revue Songs for a New World, with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown.
The show is about the complex, often over-complicated world at the end of the millennium.
The revue begins on the deck of a 1492 Spanish sailing ship.
Somehow the action leads to a ledge 57 stories above Fifth Avenue to meet a startling array of interesting characters, Floyd said.
Characters range from a young man who has determined that basketball is his ticket out of the ghetto to a woman whose dream of marrying rich nabs her the man of her dreams and a soulless marriage.
The revue contains the songs King of the World, Hear My Song, I’d Give It All for You and I’m Not Afraid of Anything.
Jamie Tompkins, drama instructor, will direct.
Songs for a New World was selected because it is unlike the traditional musical and offers a large number of solos for several people, Floyd said.
Performances are April 29-May 1 in the Carillon Theatre.
Character ages for both performances range from 17 to 70 with large and small roles available.
For further information, contact the South Campus theater department at 817-515-4526.