Closing the curtains

UTPA Theatre previews new fall season, final year

Note: This article originally appeared in the Sep. 4, 2014 issue of The Pan American. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.

The University Theatre Productions is getting ready for its fall season that begins next month. Theater Director Thomas Grabowski discussed how the start of the 2014 fall semester marks the beginning of the end of the University Theatre Program. This is due to the upcoming merger with The University of Texas at Brownsville that will open The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley next fall.

“When we started picking performances for this school year, we didn’t even realize that it actually was our last year,” said the University of Illinois alum who has been at the University for 33 years. “We’re assuming that we’re going to continue doing the same thing we’ve been doing and prepare for our spring season. We haven’t heard anything saying otherwise.”

THE PRODUCTIONS

The season starts off with Richard III, a historical play by William Shakespeare that depicts the rise of King Richard III of England and his two-year reign from 1483 to 1485. In the play, the king is portrayed as a villainous hero who schemes his way to the top. It is set to run Oct. 8–12 at the Albert L. Jeffers Theatre.

Zebastian Duchene, a junior who has the role of Richard III’s co-conspirator, the Duke of Buckingham, noted the changes the adaptation makes from Shakespeare’s drama. According to the finance major, changes include the condensing of several storylines to focus exclusively on Richard III, as well as a completely different setting.

“The production is set in an post-apocalyptic world where society is trying to rebuild itself after an undisclosed fallout,” the McAllen native said. “Even though it’s a different place, the play manages to recreate the political climate of the story that personifies several human faults.”

UTPA Professor Brian Warren wrote the play and managed to slash as much as half of the original four-hour run-time to make Richard III accessible for students while ensuring the adaptation will satisfy Shakespeare purists. He noted that this is the first time that the theater department has performed one of Shakespeare’s historical plays, which covered English history from the 12th to the 16th centuries.

Despite the fact that the original play was written more than four centuries ago, the Iowa native believes that audiences would still be interested in the story due to the themes in Richard III he sees as “relevant,” and the popularity of the award-winning series House of Cards. The blockbuster series from Netflix depicts a congressman who schemes and backstabs his way to the top, much like Richard III.

“The play is a behind-the-scenes look at politically ambitious people who do things in the name of power,” Warren said. “Even though the events depicted took place in the 15th century, the behavior of these characters and the question the play asks, ‘how much power can these people have before they start to lose themselves?’ makes for a compelling drama.”

DRAMA

The second production from the theater department is the original drama Locked. It depicts an African-American family that discovers an ancestor of theirs was a slave - a realization that shocks them. Locked was inspired by a family heirloom that UTPA art professor Lorenzo Pace, a co-writer of the production, is in possession of: the metal lock that bound his great-grandfather in chains when the latter was a slave.

English professor Philip Zwerling, the other writer of the production, commented on the difficulty of casting the play, which featured a dominant African-American cast. This caused him and Pace to go out into the community into places such as Edinburg’s Rising Star Baptist Church to recruit actors.

“In the seven years I’ve been teaching here, I’ve never seen an African-American-themed production, this may be a first for the department,” the New York native said. “[Pace] and I were interested in seeing how a family would react to discover something as shocking as slavery about an ancestor. Even though the characters are fictional, it tells a story that is real and important.”

Locked is scheduled to run Oct. 23–26 in the UTPA Studio Theatre, adjacent to the Albert L. Jeffers Theatre in the Arts and Humanities Building.

COMEDY

Following a slave-themed drama, the tone for the department’s next play is wildly different. The Mystery of the Shady Palms RV Park, an original comedy by UTPA professor Eric Wiley follows the owner of a Winter Texan RV park who is desperately trying to sell it. THis biggest obstacle in getting rid of the park is the fact that visitors keep disappearing, turning off potential buyers.

“Part of the fun in watching the play is the performance of the students as they’ll all be acting as Winter Texans,” said Wiley, who received his doctorate in theatre from Louisiana State University in 1999. “They’ll be dressed in old-people makeup having fun, and that enthusiasm will hopefully translate in the audiences enjoying the play as much as the actors are enjoying acting in it.”

The Mystery of the Shady Palms RV Park will run Nov. 19-23 in the UTPA Studio Theatre.

CHRISTMAS

The final production of the season will be Pastorela, otherwise known as A Shepherd's Play, which is part of the department’s Theatre for Young Audiences Program. The program produces plays aimed at young audiences and features child actors working with student actors.

Pastorela tells the story of a group of shepherds who follow the star of Bethlehem to meet the Christ Child. It is directed by University Theatre alumna Martha Angelica Chavez de Palmerin and will run Dec. 4-7.

LOOKING AHEAD

Gina Marie, a veteran student actress for the last two years, is unfazed by the coming changes to the programs. The 28-year-old Pharr native pointed out that more students will have a chance to major in theatre, as UTB never had a theater program nor did they offered a degree in that field. Because of this, she is looking forward to see what the UTRGV theater program will offer.

“It’s a bittersweet year, but it’s helping our new season stand out more, marking the beginning of great things for the community,” said Marie, a theatre performance major. “I see [UTRGV] as not only something that will unite the community, but the entire Rio Grande Valley.”

Professor Warren is also interested in what the new university will bring and hopes some of the accomplishments from UTPA’s theater program will transform to UTRGV’s program.

“Our purpose is to educate the community and our students through our productions,” he said. “We’re going to continue with that mission and keep the quality of our plays. We’ll see where this collaboration with UTRGV takes us.”

More information about the UTPA Theatre Productions, including their spring lineup, can be found at the website.