Cathy Kurz, Artistic Director     

402-399-6287     

bsb@csm.edu     

      

The Brigit Saint Brigit Theatre Company, our resident professional theatre organization, offers free admission to CSM students for all performances during the season.  Students must present a valid CSM student identification card at the door.  All productions are presented in the Gross Conference Center and are open to the public.  For ticket information, call 402-399-6287 or email bsb@csm.edu      

     

Curtain time for all productions on Fridays and Saturdays is 7:30 p.m.; Sunday performances begin at 2:00 p.m.  Free parking is available in any unreserved space on campus.  In case of weather emergencies, call 402-399-6287 one hour prior to the performance to hear a recorded message regarding possible cancellations.      

     

2007-2008 Season   

SHINING CITY, by Conor McPherson   

September 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23   

This play contains explicit language and sexual content.
    

The production rights previously granted to Brigit Saint Brigit for a September, 2007, nonunion-house-production of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt have been temporarily put on hold due to an August confirmation of plans for a production of the play by a Midwestern Regional union house.  As a result, BSB has moved up its plans (from 2008/2009 to 2007/2008) to premiere Conor McPherson¹s 2004 play, Shining City, as its opening production of the Theatre¹s 15th season.

Shining City will be one-half of a pairing of the first two plays of Brigit's season, a pairing which explores the evolution of Irish identity over the last century.  McPherson's contemporary Dublin tale both contrasts and complements Sean O'Casey's early 20th century classic of Dublin life, The Shadow of A Gunman (opening October 5th).  

 
In a sharp contrast to the dynamics of the larger community or even of family as in O'Casey's early 20th-century Ireland, Shining City's four characters hardly know each other.  All of the action takes place in the office of Ian, a recently resigned priest, who is beginning his new career as a therapist.  His very first client, John, is experiencing a shockingly unique crisis--he¹s having visions of his deceased wife, Mari.  Moreover, Mari's violent death in an automobile accident occurred during an unresolved estrangement in the marriage.  

Three of the drama's five scenes occur between Ian and John--in fact, those scenes could be lifted from the play and convey a devastatingly powerful experience.  But the intervening scenes--one between Ian and the woman for whom he left the priesthood, the other involving Ian and a young male prostitute--strangely echo John's experiences.  The freedom from communal values often results in isolation, and McPherson examines the price we pay for forfeiting those: the unavoidable and sometimes frightening journey into ourselves.   This play is truly stunning because of its intimacy and achingly familiar humanity. 
    

THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN, by Sean O'Casey    

October 5, 6, 7; 12, 13, 14; 19, 20, 21    

    

BSB's annual Irish play occurs in the fall this season.  The second in O'Casey's classic trilogy about "the troubles" in early, 20th-century Ireland, The Shadow of A Gunman focuses on the tenement-dwellers of working-class Dublin, juxtaposing their lives with the chaos of Ireland's guerilla War of Independence.  The colorful idiom of their language, the inevitable daily commotion caused when too many people live too close together, the stairstep gossip--all these make for the unique Irish hilarity that, in true form, turns on a pence to absurd or tragic, then back again. Rich, funny, bewildering, tragic.


   

ANNA CHRISTIE, by Eugene O'Neill    

Note: Performance dates have been changed.  The updated schedule is shown here.  

November 9, 10, 11; 16, 17, 18;   

No performances Thanksgiving Weekend  

November 30; December 1, 2

    

In 1922, O'Neill won the first of his four Pulitzers for this examination of a young "fallen woman."  "The play focuses on the problematic relationship between a sailor and the daughter he has not seen for almost 20 years.  It becomes even more problematic by her romantic involvement with another man of the sea, and [whether or not she should] unveil her troubled past. …O'Neill presents a realistic…exploration of family conflict and the harsh reality of women's lives in the early part of the 20th century."


  

BRIGIT SAINT BRIGIT'S FAMILY SERIES  

ACACIA'S SECRET HEART  

December 14 and 15 at 7:00 p.m. (note earlier time)  

Call 399-6287 for details  

  

DOUBT, by Patrick Shanley 

 

Note: The play and its performance dates have been changed.  The updated schedule is shown here.  

 

Although DOUBT does not contain any profanity, violence, or explicit sexual content, it deals with serious subject matter which is not suitable for children.  

  

Jan. 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 25, 26, 27 

Jan. 27 - TWO PERFORMANCES: 2:00 p.m and 7:30 p.m. 

No performances Jan. 6, 18, 19, or 20 

 

Winner of the Pulitzer and Tony Awards in 2005, the play takes the form of a mystery.  Set in 1964, at St. Nicholas Catholic school and church, the characters are cut from the bolt of the time and its social, political, and moral upheaval.  "Father Flynn is a handsome and magnetic presence in the highly regimented school run by Sister Aloysius who, despite the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, clings to old ways.  If Father Flynn is a fresh wind, Sister Aloysius is stale institutional air" (Washington Post).  Father Flynn's rapport with the children contrasts as starkly with Sister Aloysius's manner as do his casual clothes with her traditional nun's habit.  As their relationship unfolds, his new ideas and easy ways increasingly antagonize her, yet even though he's 20 years younger, he is a priest, thus, her superior.  This makes her ultimate challenge to him either unselfish and courageous or paranoid and controlling.  She becomes convinced that Father Flynn is sexually abusing one of the 8th-grade boys, and she confronts Flynn.  He vehemently denies the accusation.  Their conflict escalates.  One of them is in the right, but which one?  A horrible accusation if false, an unspeakable horror if true.  The playwright keeps us on the edge of our seats as we parse every word, examine every nuance to find out the truth.

 

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER, by Oliver Goldsmith    

February 8, 9, 10; 15, 16, 17; 22, 23, 24.     

    

The warmest and funniest of the 18th-century comedies, She Stoops centers on the courtship of the peppery young Kate Hardcastle and the witty, charming, and intelligent, Marlow.  Unfortunately, where women are concerned, he is only able to be witty and charming with barmaids and servants.  So in order to see if he can string two words together, Kate disguises herself as a barmaid.  This storyline is woven into the play amidst others of mistaken identity, a feather-brained avaricious aunt, and the infamous Tony Lumpkin (her nephew) who engineers a lot of mischief before the curtain falls.  A boisterous bounder of a play.


   

A HATFUL OF RAIN, by Michael Gazzo    

March 7, 8, 9; 14, 15, 16; 28, 29, 30   

No performances Easter weekend, March 21, 22, 23

     

Gazzo's story of a Korean war hero, Johnny, trying to readjust to family and home is an intensely personal drama.  His wife Celia and brother Polo are increasingly worried about him: he can't hold a job and is frequently away overnight without explanation.  The incongruity of his behavior weaves a vague, inexplicable threat, and Polo steps up to protect the household.  But from what?