{"id":62009,"date":"2013-02-28T13:56:39","date_gmt":"2013-02-28T18:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=62009"},"modified":"2017-01-26T14:17:53","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T19:17:53","slug":"2gentlemen-verona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2013\/02\/28\/2gentlemen-verona\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrucki directs Shakespeare’s early ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nikhil Krishna ’13 as Proteus hears a mouthful from a Sam Metzger ’14 as Valentine. Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College.<\/p><\/div>\n

Bates presents The Two Gentlemen of Verona<\/em>, a romantic comedy considered by some to be Shakespeare’s first play, in performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, March 7-9; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 9-10; and 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 11, in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.<\/p>\n

Admission is $6, and $3 for seniors and students. Tickets are available at batestickets.com<\/a> or by calling the box office at 207-786-6161.<\/p>\n

The Two Gentlemen<\/em>, believed to have been written in the early 1590s, “just captures the spirit of youthful energy,” says director Martin Andrucki, Dana Professor of Theater. “It’s a love story, a friendship story and a betrayal story.”<\/p>\n

He says, “Audiences can expect a lively and fast-paced play, and one that’s sometimes very funny and sometimes moving.”<\/p>\n

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Silvia is played by Singha Hon ’14.<\/p><\/div>\n

The storyline is driven by the romantic impulses of two young couples: Julia and Proteus, and Silvia and Valentine, who is Proteus’ best friend. The fickle Proteus and coy Julia stir up a colorful plot — involving cross-dressing, a scene-stealing dog and a band of woodland outlaws — that works out happily for all in the end.<\/p>\n

The themes of romantic love and friendship found here are ones that Shakespeare would return to later in such works at Twelfth Night<\/em> and As You Like It<\/em>, says Andrucki.<\/p>\n

“From my perspective as a student of Shakespeare and as a director, I’m finding it really informative to see how Shakespeare’s mind was cooking when he was still learning how to cook,” he says. “It gives me a deeper appreciation of his later work.”<\/p>\n

Sixteen students will perform in the Bates production. Portraying Proteus is Nikhil Krishna, a senior from Concord, Mass., who is performing as part of a senior thesis. Sam Metzger, a junior from Wellesley Hills, Mass., plays Valentine; Allie Freed, a first-year student from Magnolia, Mass., is Julia; and Silvia is played by Singha Hon, a junior from New York City.<\/p>\n

The production features original music by Vonetta Trotter, a senior from New York City, who composed a setting for Shakespeare’s famous lyric “Who is Silvia?” Krishna will sing the piece.<\/p>\n

Andrucki notes that his production is transposed to the late 1960s, an era marked by social upheaval that meshes with the setting of the play.<\/p>\n

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Wearing costumes designed by Carol Farrell, the cast takes a bow during a dress rehearsal.<\/p><\/div>\n

Unlike other plays by Shakespeare, he adds, The Two Gentlemen<\/em> meets college students where they are in terms of life experience and outlook.<\/p>\n

“The characters are the same age as our students,” Andrucki says. “The kinds of emotional experiences they go through will be familiar to students — intense friendship, intense infatuation or love, and betrayal of friendship through love.<\/p>\n

“So it’s all very accessible, and the actors can sink their teeth into it in a way that enables them to do justice to the play.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bates presents Shakespeare’s “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” in performances March 7-11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":62234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11010],"tags":[5702,6889,7880,71,9087],"class_list":["post-62009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-arts","tag-martin-andrucki","tag-performing-and-visual-arts","tag-shakespeare","tag-theater","tag-visual-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62009"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95709,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62009\/revisions\/95709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}