Martin Andrucki, Dana Professor of Theater at Bates, directs the college theater department production of “Measure for Measure,” William Shakespeare’s dark comedy about sex, public morality and private hypocrisy.

Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 7, 8, 14 and 15; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 10 and 16, in Gannett Theater, Pettigrew Hall, 2 Andrews Road.

Admission is $6 general admission, and $3 for Bates faculty and staff, senior citizens and non-Bates students. For more information, please call 207-786-6161 or visit the online box office at www.bates.edu/boxoffice.

“Measure for Measure” is believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. Though known as a comedy, it’s also one of three Shakespeare plays that scholars term “problem plays” — meaning they address, but reach no conclusions about, problematic social issues such as the need for mercy in justice, the definition of gender roles in human sexuality, and, in particular, questions of sexual morality.

“Measure for Measure,” says Andrucki, “raises more questions than it answers, leaving the audience without any final or settled sense of the moral stature of the major characters.”

In the story, the Duke of Vienna has left the city in the hands of Angelo, a strict and austere judge. Though the Duke has rarely enforced the city’s laws against fornication, Angelo is an outspoken supporter of them, and his control of the city spells trouble for young lovers.

When one Claudio gets Juliet, his betrothed, pregnant, Angelo sentences him to death. But when Isabella, Claudio’s distraught sister, pleads for mercy for her brother, Angelo tells her he will spare her brother’s life only if she has sex with him.

Thus begins the commentary on the hypocrisy of public figures, and how social morality does not necessarily correlate with private morality. When it turns out that the Duke has not gone away at all, but stayed in Vienna incognito to observe the happenings without him, chaos reigns as the theme of secret identity prevails throughout the play.

Andrucki edited the play slightly, cutting a number of scenes, but is presenting the play essentially as it appears in standard editions of Shakespeare. But he has moved the action from Renaissance Vienna to New York in the 1970s, a setting for an urban breakdown parallel to that depicted in the Duke’s Vienna .

Two Bates seniors feature prominently in the production. Stephen Lattanzi of Winchester, Mass., plays Angelo and Sam Leichter of Wallingford, Pa., portrays the Duke. Both students are using the play as their senior acting thesis production.

“I knew I had two strong actors to play the male leads,” Andrucki says. “Then, I like the fact that the play has a lot of colorful and challenging cameo roles, which would allow a large number of students to get involved.”

Stephen Lattanzi '08 plays the role of Milo in Five Cups of Coffee.

Stephen Lattanzi, a Bates College senior from Winchester, Mass., is one of two winners of a regional competition in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, held Jan. 29- Feb. 3 at Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Mass.

Lattanzi will compete nationally in Washington, D.C., in April. The other Region I winner was Michael Zuccola of Northern Essex Community College, in Massachusetts.

“I’m very excited,” Lattanzi says of his win. “It’s an absolutely phenomenal opportunity.”

Along with Lattanzi, two other Bates seniors competed in Fitchburg. Sam Leichter of Wallingford, Pa., took part in the acting trials and Eric Auner of Medford, Mass., competed in sound design.

Two noncompeting scene partners also went. Sophomore Caroline Servat of San Francisco supported Lattanzi, and senior Maggie McCally of Westport, Conn., worked with Leichter.

One of eight across the nation, the Region I competition included schools from all over New England. “There were something like 54 colleges represented,” Lattanzi says. “A huge sampling of really good talent. It was fantastic to see other people’s stuff.”

Leichter adds that Bates’ was one of the smaller theater programs there. “Only five people went from Bates. Boston University, it seemed like, sent their entire school.”

“But we stood out exponentially in terms of how we’d been trained and what Bates had prepared us for,” Lattanzi says.

Both actors have taken part in several Bates productions, including Five Cups of Coffee, The Three Sisters and The Taming of the Shrew. Lattanzi is also the co-founder of the Winchester Cooperative Theatre’s Summer Acting Conservatory, directing an adaptation for high school students of Romeo and Juliet last summer.

For the three rounds of the festival’s regional competition, Lattanzi and Leichter each had to prepare two scenes and a monologue. Lattanzi presented scenes from Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things and William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, and a monologue from Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth.

Leichter presented scenes from The Heidi Chronicles, by Wendy Wasserstein, and Dying City, by Christopher Shinn, and a monologue from Shakespeare’s King John.

This was the first time in 20 years that Bates has entered the Kennedy Center competition. (Schools enter a specific production in order to participate, although competing students may present material from any play. Bates’ entry was Gillette Elvgren’s play Five Cups of Coffee, produced last fall and directed by Professor of Theater Paul Kuritz.)

Kati Vecsey of the Bates theater faculty calls the competition a great opportunity for aspiring career actors. “Stepping outside of Bates provides a possibility to measure yourself up to other people in this business who are your peers age-wise,” she says. “To compete with people who are going into this profession, it’s really important to see that you are good.”

The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival is a longstanding program involving nearly 20,000 college and university students nationwide. Winners of the regional festivals and showcases will present their work at the national festival at the Kennedy Center April 14-20.

Lattanzi credits the Bates theater department for much of his success. “To be there and to prove ourselves, win or not, among these other schools, speaks volumes about the department,” he says.