Nikki (Elizabeth Heflin) and Hamish (Mic Matarrese) look on as Barbara (Kathleen Pirkl Tague) discovers a surprise suitor (Lee Ernst) in "Things We Do for Love."

April 20-May 8: 'Things We Do for Love'

Ayckbourn's 'Things We Do for Love' staged by UD Resident Ensemble Players

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4 p.m., April 19, 2016--Spring is here and love is in the air. Perhaps a bit too much love. Sparks fly, hearts break, and laughter roars in Alan Ayckbourn’s bedroom comedy Things We Do for Love, presented by University of Delaware’s Resident Ensemble Players (REP) from April 20 through May 8 at the Roselle Center for the Arts.

Tickets and further information can be found at the REP website.

Events Stories

June 5: Blue Hen 5K

University of Delaware graduates planning to attend Alumni Weekend are encouraged to register for the annual Blue Hen 5K walk and run, which will be held Sunday morning, June 5.

June 6-9: Food and culture series

The 20th annual June Lecture Series at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UD in Wilmington will be held June 6-9. Titled 'June a la Carte,' this year's program focuses on great political documents, feminism, world politics and a Newark cuisine sampler.

The stage is set for disaster when Nikki and her fiancé, Hamish, move into her friend Barbara’s upstairs apartment. Barbara and Hamish initially despise each other, but that distained may be hiding deeper feelings.

Meanwhile, in the basement flat, zany Gilbert the Postman is creating a shrine to his own hidden love.

A true multi-level comedy, the action takes place on an ingenious three-level set. 

“The challenge of the set,” says scenic designer Scott Bradley, “is what you don’t see. Ayckbourn wrote it to be played just the way the REP is presenting it. There are very few theatres that can pull this off.

“The main floor is a full apartment but the view of the upstairs flat is only from the knees down. The playwright saw a Clint Eastwood movie where one scene was only filmed from the knees down and he was inspired to create a bedroom farce that played with the same idea. And the basement is only seen from the view of the top of a ladder. But I won’t give away why.”

Director Sanford Robbins says that Ayckbourn, while often hilarious, has a brilliant way of blending highly farcical action with bittersweet moments of poignancy and pain. “In Things We Do for Love,” says Robbins, “there is far more of the former than the latter but the cast and I have found the play’s poignancy all the more affecting for its unexpected appearances.”

Schedule

Things We Do for Love opens on Friday, April 22, and runs through Sunday, May 8.

Preview performances of the play take place on Wednesday and Thursday, April 20 and 21, at 7:30 p.m.

Prologues — free preshow presentations — take place on Saturday, April 30, and Saturday, May 7, beginning at 1:15 p.m. in the Studio Theatre.

On April 30, UD’s Matthew Kinservik will discuss British humor and the illustrious playwright, Alan Ayckbourn.

On May 7, Keith Davis and Anne Clark, the REP’s technical director and scenic charge artist, respectively, will discuss the creation of the unique and technically-complex three-story set.

The REP will also offer audience members a chance to engage with the cast members at a talkback in the theatre following the performance on Thursday, April 28.

Tickets

Tickets are $23-$29, with discounts for students and seniors.

Tickets can be purchased at any time online or Monday through Friday, from noon until 5 p.m. by phone at 302-831-2204 or in person at the Roselle Center for the Arts, 110 Orchard Rd., Newark.

A convenient parking garage is adjacent to the Roselle Center.

A complete schedule, directions, and information on purchasing tickets can be found at the REP website or by calling the REP box office at 302-831-2204.

The REP’s performances are sponsored in part by the Delaware Division of the Arts.

Also on stage through May 8

Called “visceral” and “riveting” by Delaware’s News Journal, the REP’s production of Tony Award-winning Red by John Logan performs through May 8 in the REP’s small Studio Theatre in the Center for the Arts. 

Red is a raw and provocative portrait of master abstract painter Mark Rothko as he works feverishly with his assistant, Ken, on the biggest commission in the history of modern art — a series of massive murals for New York’s Four Season’s restaurant. When Ken begins to challenge Rothko's artistic integrity, the artist faces the possibility that his greatest achievement could also become his undoing.

Tickets and information can be found online.

About the REP

The Resident Ensemble Players (REP) is a professional theatre company located at the University of Delaware. 

The REP’s mission is to engage audiences throughout the tri-state area with frequent productions of outstanding classic, modern, and contemporary plays performed in a wide variety of styles that celebrate and demonstrate the range, breadth, and ability to transform a full-time ensemble of nationally respected stage actors who have been trained in the same way.

The REP is committed to create future audiences for live theatre by offering its productions at low prices that enable and encourage the attendance of everyone in the region, regardless of income.

Photos by N. Howatt and Paul Cerro

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