9:07 a.m., April 14, 2009----The Resident Ensemble Players (REP), Delaware's professional acting company, presents the final production of its inaugural season, Noel Coward's madcap comedy Hay Fever, directed by John Going, in the University of Delaware's Roselle Center for the Arts on the main campus in Newark.

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Performances preview Thursday, April 16, open Friday April 17, and run through Saturday, May 16.

Ticket prices are affordable, ranging from $14 to $20 for the general public tickets with discounts for students, seniors and UD faculty and staff. Tickets can be purchased by calling the REP box office at (302) 831-2204, in person at the Roselle Center, 110 Orchard Rd., Newark, or online at the REP Web site.

Putting the “fun” in “dysfunctional,” the eccentric, theatrical and rather inappropriately named Bliss family has no peers in the realms of biting wit and outlandish behavior. Judith, a recently retired stage actress, her husband David, a self-absorbed novelist, and their two equally unorthodox children all invite a parade of unsuspecting guests to their country house for a chaotic weekend of romantic dalliances and unexpected altercations in Coward's riotous romp of bad manners.

Matthew J. Kinservik, dramaturge for the production, says, “Hay Fever remains one of Coward's signature works. It is a situation comedy that throws together the self-involved, artistic Bliss family and four unwitting house guests, inviting us to sit back and watch the fun unfold over the course of their weekend together. The play is, by turns, sophisticated and silly, and it treats artistic endeavor as both vitally important and narcissistic.”

Director John Going is a four-time Helen Hayes Award nominee and received the outstanding direction award for his work on The Miser at the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger. His production of Inherit the Wind, starring Robert Vaughn and E.G. Marshall, at the Papermill Playhouse won top honors in Showtime's “Search for Excellence in the American Theater.”

Going has staged well over 200 productions of classics, new works, contemporary revivals and musicals at some of the finest theatres in the country: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Hartford Stage, Asolo Theatre, Alley Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Philadelphia Drama Guild, Wilma Theatre, and Alliance Theatre, among others.

Going also directed the well-received A Flea in Her Ear in UD's Thompson Theatre during the Roselle Center for the Arts opening season in 2007.

The REP, established in 2008, is the professional component of UD's Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP), the nationally acclaimed graduate conservatory. Featuring some of America's most experienced and respected regional theatre actors and actresses, the REP and the theatre conservatory are similar to interconnected professional companies and training programs found at Harvard and Yale universities, among many others.

The performance schedule for Hay Fever is as follows: April 16, 17 and 18, and May 8, 9, 15 and 16, at 7:30 p.m.; April 18 and 19, and May 9, 10 and 16, at 2 p.m.

Prior to the 2 p.m. performance on Saturday, April 18, and the 7:30 p.m. performance on Friday, May 8, is the REP Prologue, a free and informal 20-minute presentation about the production, designed to enhance patrons' enjoyment and understanding of what they are about to experience.

The Roselle Center for the Arts is located at 110 Orchard Road, on the corner of Orchard Road and Kent Way, in Newark. A convenient parking garage is adjacent to the center.

A complete schedule, directions and information on purchasing tickets can be found at the REP's Web site or by calling the REP's box office at (302) 831-2204.

Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson