Three Sisters opens PTTP season Nov. 30

2:55 p.m., Sept. 24, 2004--UD's Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) opens its 2004-05 season at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 30, in Hartshorn Hall with Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters. William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night or What You Will premieres Saturday, Dec. 4.

The plays will mark the inaugural performance by 24 actors, 11 technical directors and six stage managers, who are enrolled at the PTTP for three years of concentrated training.

The Three Sisters tells of the excruciating monotony of daily existence in a fading military town, the attraction of an intriguing stranger, the lure of big city excitement and glamour. Three sisters of a once prominent family find themselves trapped in lives of shattered dreams and suffocating disappointment in a rural Russian backwater while yearning to escape to their childhood home in Moscow.

Twelfth Night or What You Will is a funny and touching merry-go-round of romantic missteps, mistaken identities, gender-bending disguise and unrequited love. Narrowly escaping a shipwreck, young Viola is cast ashore on the coast of Illyria. Disguised as a man, she finds herself in a tangled love-triangle between a lovesick count and the object of his affection.

Eight performances of The Three Sisters are slated:

Tuesday, Nov. 30, 7:30 p.m.;
Wednesday, Dec. 1, 7:30 p.m.;
Tuesday, Dec. 7, 7:30 p.m.;
Friday, Dec. 10, 7:30 p.m.;
Saturday, Dec. 11, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; and
Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Seven performances of Twelfth Night are scheduled for December:

Saturday, Dec. 4, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.;
Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.;
Thursday, Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m.;
Tuesday, Dec. 14, 7:30 p.m.; and
Thursday, Dec. 16, 7:30 p.m.

PTTP students are selected once every four years to pursue master’s degrees in fine arts. The group is chosen through an extensive search throughout the United States in the year between the graduation of one class and the beginning of the next class. Training is focused on plays from the classic repertoire and the program seeks students who are particularly interested in the classics.

UD’s Theatre Department offers a bachelor’s degree in theatre production for students interested in learning about costume production, stage management and technical production. The students' practical experiences include participating in the production of PTTP plays. The department also offers a theatre minor, designed to give students a foundation in the viewing of theatre, as well as the art and craft of the theatre.

For more information and to order tickets, visit [www.udel.edu/theatre], call (302) 831-2204, e-mail [pttp-boxoffice@udel.edu] or stop by the Hartshorn Box Office.

Article by Martin Mbugua

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