"I think this is our biggest season ever,” said Jim O’Connor, chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance. "We'll range from one of the world's greatest comedies ever, through Greek tragedy and a classic 20th-century American masterpiece, to a challenging contemporary piece that pushes at the boundaries of what theatre can be. And, as always, a play of Shakespeare's, this year directed by an associate artistic director of the Utah Shakespearean Festival."

Curtain times for Theatre South Carolina productions are 8 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday and 3 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets for all productions are $14 for the general public; $12 for USC faculty and staff, senior citizens (age 60+), and the military; and $10 for students. Group tickets for 10 or more people are available.

Season tickets are $62 for the public; $50 for senior citizens (age 60+), military, and USC faculty and staff; and $36 for students.

For theater ticket information, call 7-2551. For information on dance concerts, call 7-5636. For other information, call 7-9353.

The Theatre South Carolina schedule includes:

• Tartuffe, by Moliere (translation by Richard Wilbur), Sept. 26–Oct. 5, Drayton Hall, directed by Jim O’Connor, chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance. Considered one of the greatest comedies of all time, the play tells the story of a family caught in the clutches of a religious hypocrite who bamboozles his way to nearly total control of the household, abusing the trust his host places in him. The cast will include Patrick Mullins as Mme. Pernelle; Richard Jennings, Orgon; Pam Vogel, Elmire; Matt Purdy, Damin; Vaughn Shearer, Mariane; Fábio Pires, Valère; Zach Hanks, Clèante; Steve Fenley, Tartuffe; Mary Floyd, Dorin; John Dailey, M. Loyal; and Terry Donovan Smith, an officer. The parts of Flipote and Laurant will be announced later. Tickets will be available at the box office beginning Sept. 19.

• The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, Oct. 24–Nov. 2, Longstreet Theater, directed by Jerry Winters, USC MFA candidate. Written by the South's greatest playwright, the play is about a wandering son who is haunted by the sister and mother he had to leave behind. The cast includes Sarah Barker as Amanda Wingfield; Kay Allmand, Laura Wingfield; Brian Schilb, Tom Wingfield; and Steve Fenley, Jim O’Connor. Tickets available at the box office beginning Oct. 17.

• Polaroid Stories, by Naomi Lizuka, Nov. 14–23, Longstreet Theater, directed by Craig Miller, USC MFA candidate. Lizuka's award-winning Polaroid Stories is edgy, new theatre—part documentary of life on the streets, part Ovid's Metamorphoses. The play is lyric and profane, a mixture of reality and dreamland, truth and lies, a crude and beautiful piece that connects now with forever, the chaotic with the oldest of forms. The cast includes Zach Hanks as D (Dionysus); Pam Vogel, Eurydice; Sarah Thomas, Persephone (also Semele); Fábio Pires, Orphesus (also Tereus); Jillian Owens, Philomel; E.G. Heard; Skinheadgirl (aka Neon girl); Patrick Kelly, Narcissus; Antionette Wright, Echo; Matt Purdy, Skinheadboy (aka Oklahoma boy/Speedracer); and Marcus Thomas, G (aka Zeus and Hades). Tickets available at the box office beginning Nov. 7.

• Trojan Women, by Euripides, Feb. 20–29, directed by guest artist Paul Mullins, Drayton Hall Theater. "In death there is nothing. In life there is hope.” In The Trojan Women, Euripides puts aside the heroism of war and shows us war's real ending: the death of children, the enslavement of women, and the engulfment of a society in flames. Tickets available at the box office beginning Feb. 13.

• Love's Labour's Lost, by William Shakespeare, April 16–25, Drayton Hall, directed by guest artist J.R. Sullivan. Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost is a frothy, bitter-sweet comedy about love and romance in which four well-intentioned but misguided young men discover the impossibility of denying the power of true love. Tickets available at the box office beginning April 11.

The USC Dance schedule includes:

• USC Dance Concert, March 18–20, Drayton Hall, Susan E. Anderson, a professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, artistic director. USC dance students, faculty, and choreographers will present an evening of variety, color, sound, and movement.

The Theatre South Carolina Student Showcase schedule will include:

• Gut Girls, by Sarah Daniels, 8 p.m., Oct. 8–10, Benson Theater. Victorian notions of femininity, the cost and subsequent value of self-worth, and self-determination are examined as upper- and lower-class English women come together in Gut Girls and struggle to define their roles in society. The title characters are five unmarried women working up to their ankles in blood in the slaughterhouses of London. When they lose their jobs in the gutting shed, their world changes, becoming cleaner and more feminine, yet at the same time it becomes more restrictive and oppressive. Tickets will be $5 and will be available at the door.

08/03