Texas A&M University-C Theater Arts
Department Presents

World Premiere  of "Iphigenia"

 

 

 

 

The Texas  A&M Commerce University Playhouse proudly presents the World Premiere of Iphigenia, by world renowned playwright Don Nigro.

Performances are October 12-16 at 8:00PM and October 17 at 3:00 PM. It is also this year’s entry in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

The Texas A&M-Commerce Theater Department is hosting a formal reception on Opening Night, to commemorate the World Premier, following that night's performance. They invite all patrons to celebrate with them at the reception, where dress will be "Business or Formal."

Dr. Carrie Klypchack, who directs the play said, “It is almost unheard of for a university theatre to produce the world premiere of a work by such a well-respectedplaywright. It’s usually professional theatres in New York, Los Angeles, or London, not Commerce, Texas. This is huge!”

Iphigenia was inspired by the Greek myth in which Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter to gain favorable winds for his thousand ships headed for Troy. The first playwright inspired by the  story was Aeschylus in the 5th century BCE.

Don Nigro’s version, like a number of his plays, is set in the fictional Pendragon County, Ohio in the early 20th century. One is reminded of that unpronounceable Mississippi county where William Faulkner set so many of his stories. And like Faulkner, Nigro is particularly adept at exploring the inner workings, intrigues and secrets among family members.

 

 

Denise Buckels, Royce City Graduate Student, portrays Carloyn Ryan, while Jeff Stirl,
Daingerfield Grad Student, portrays her husband, Michael Ryan, in the production.

 

 

A synopsis of the storyline is described as follows:

Nigro returns to his own special territory, Pendragon County, Ohio, the location of many of his plays, to revisit the myth of Iphigenia as its archetype emerges in Armitage, Ohio in the second decade of the twentieth century. Michael Ryan has appeared in Armitage, married the daughter of the bank president, and now, twenty years later, is one of the most respected men in town. But he is a haunted man, locking himself in his study at night to read the Greek tragedies in the original, and distant from his lonely wife Carolyn and daughters, the beautiful but fragile Jenna and the smart, sardonic Lexie. Then one night a young man appears with a secret from Michael's past that could destroy everything. He wants a job at the bank, he wants to torture Michael, and he wants Michael's daughter Jenna. The ancient mythology of guilt, betrayal, human sacrifice and ambiguous redemption begins to manifest itself as Jenna gives herself to the stranger to try and please her father, then has a breakdown on her wedding night that involves a long knife, a walk on the roof, and the village idiot. This is a very funny, dark tale about the possibility of recognizing and then subverting the mythology one finds one's self trapped in. While this full length play is complete and self-contained, it is also the first of a group of plays, The Greek Trilogy, that will continue the story with Clytemnestra and Electra.

 

 

 

 

Nigro is among the most frequently published and widely produced playwrights in the world. He has continued to build a deeply inter-related but diverse body of dramatic literature over the years, work that is often mysterious and unclassifiable, employing a wide variety of dramatic conventions and styles of presentation. He has written monologues and epics, spare realistic dramas, and surreal homicidal puppet farces, plays with music and verse. He continues to build the long cycle of Pendragon County, Ohio, plays, which traces the history of America, through the lives of several east Ohio families, from the eighteenth century to the present, and features many characters whose lives are followed from youth through middle age to old age, in a number of plays designed to be presented in a number of different combinations.

Nigro has twice been a finalist for the National Repertory Theater Foundation's national Play Award, and has won a playwriting fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation, among numerous other awards.

Graduate student, Jeffrey Stirl, who portrays the patriarch of the “Ryan” family, in the upcoming TAMU-C production, said, “I’m excited when I think that I am the first actor in the world to say these lines and play this role. It’s fantastic, and a little bit humbling.”

 

 

Stirl and Buckels share a "tender moment" during Act 2, as they
fulfill the roles of The Ryans, in 1900 , in a small Ohio town.

 

Box Office Manager, Denise Buckels, who also plays “Carolyn” in the play, stressed the importance of letting patrons know that in order to better serve our campus population the University Playhouse productions this season open on Tuesdays and run through Sundays for one week.

Prices are $3.00 for students, $8.00 for senior citizens and $10 dollars for non-student adults.

Ms. Buckels said, “If this world premiere were in New York, tickets would cost over a hundred dollars. This is the best entertainment bargain I’ve ever seen.”

 

 

 

Playwright Don Nigro said, “I wish I could be there for the opening, but it looks like I’ll be tied up writing until doomsday.  Iphigenia is the first in a trilogy of plays. I have to finish the other two.” Theatre faculty member, Jim Anderson said, “Our invitation to Mr. Nigro remains open. He’s welcome here any time.”

 

Dr. Carrie  Klypchak serves as the director of "Iphigenia" and works with her student actors,
perfecting the dialogue and routine for the October 12th, World Premier opening at TAMUC Theater.

“Iphigenia is a powerful, sometimes darkly comic drama,” says Dr. Klypchak, “But due to violence and adult content, we don’t think it’s suitable for children.”

For more information, call 886-5900, or e-mail:  Playhouseboxoffice@TAMU-Commerce.edu   .

 

 

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