Back and ready for the new semester? I’ve got some good news! Guildford School of Acting has announced their productions in spring season, and you can now book your tickets here.
Let’s have a look at what’s in store this season:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
By William Shakespeare
7 – 10 February
A comedy play written by William Shakespeare brought up to date and set in contemporary Britain. The play contains three subplots: one involves a royal wedding between Theseus and Hippolyta; one involves a conflict among four young lovers; another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. The amateur actors and the lovers find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue. The lines between reality and illusion start to blur and no-one but mischievous Puck knows what is true and what is magic. The play is one of Shakespeare’s most popular and is widely performed.
Moliere’s classic comedy Tartuffe
Translated by Ranjit Bolt
14 – 17 February
The religious hypocrite Tartuffe has wormed his way into the once ordered household and vulnerable heart of substantial merchant Orgon. Under the guise of piety, he looks set to succeed in driving away the son, marrying the daughter, seducing the wife, imprisoning Orgon and leaving the family destitute.
Railed against as a sacrilegious outrage by the Church, the play was banned from public performance by Louis XIV in 1664.
Candidates
By Gus Gowland
22 – 25 February
A new romantic musical comedy, Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is transported to a modern-day high school election as two hopeful candidates find themselves competing for the class presidency, and end up winning much more than they bargained for.
High Spirits
By Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray
22 – 24 February
Charles Condamine, a youthfully widowed author hires Madame Arcati, an eccentric medium who can communicate with spirits, all hell breaks loose – literally! Charles’ strong-willed late wife, Elvira, appears and harasses Charles and his new wife, Ruth, with the goal of killing Charles so that he can join her in the afterlife. Based on one of Noël Coward’s most famous plays, Blithe Spirit, this Broadway and London musical adaptation from 1964 features tuneful and literate songs from Hugh Martin and Jack Gray (Meet Me In Louis, Best Foot Forward, Love From Judy).
Lambs
By Daniel Goldman
29 February – 2 March
The lives of nine slaughterhouse workers interweave in this kaleidoscopic new play that explores the human cost of our desire for cheap meat. As nine workers go about their blood-soaked days, as they fall in and out of love, as their secrets are revealed and escape routes are plotted, as their dreams are pursued and their hopes are crushed, what emerges is a story of searching for light in the darkness and how connection and warmth can save us. Lambs was born out of a research and development project with the writer and actors last year.
Violet
Music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Brian Crawley, book by Brian Crawley
29 February – 2 March
Based on the short story “The Ugliest Pilgrim” by Doris Betts, Violet centers around a young woman embarking on a long journey full of hope and dreams of a new beginning. Violet has a large scar on her face due to a childhood accident and it has, quite literally, scarred her life. Having run out of all medical options, she now pins all her hopes on a miracle cure from a famous TV preacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On her journey of self-discovery, she meets two soldiers, Flick and Monty. As they travel on together, Violet learns the true meaning of beauty, love, and what it means to be an outsider. But will Violet find her miracle cure or will she find something even better?
Carrie
Music by Michael Gore, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, book by Lawrence D. Cohen. Based on the novel by Stephen King
21 – 23 March
Carrie White is a misfit. At school, she’s an outcast who’s bullied by the popular crowd, and virtually invisible to everyone else. At home, she’s at the mercy of her loving but cruelly over-protective mother. But Carrie’s just discovered she’s got a special power, and if pushed too far, she’s not afraid to use it.
Hope some of these are of your interest. Book your tickets now to see GSA’s final year students perform!
