Release date: September 4, 2007
Kennesaw State offers new play for families
Contact: Cheryl Anderson Brown, Assistant Director of Public Relations
770-499-3417 or cbrown@kennesaw.edu
KENNESAW, Ga.—The Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at Kennesaw State University will present a readers’ theater performance of a new work, “Tom Thumb the Great,” adapted by Atlanta playwright and KSU member Margaret Baldwin, at 8 p.m. on Sept. 8 in Howard Logan Stillwell Theater. Tickets are $5 with proceeds benefiting the theater honor society, Alpha Psi Omega.
The performance at KSU will feature actors drawn from the KSU theater and performance studies . They include Dean Adams, Jane Barnette, Jamie Bullins, Jim Davis, John Gentile, Hannah Harvey, Harrison Long and Karen Robinson, as well as student Jaq Baldwin.
Although the play is based on Henry Fielding’s satirical play, “Tragedy of Tragedies, or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great,” Baldwin has written the play for contemporary family audiences. She has worked to maintain the fanciful characters and farcical style, but to make it more approachable for today’s family.
Baldwin began working on the project as part of a Maymester course at Kennesaw State earlier this year. In July, it was presented as a staged reading by the Georgia Shakespeare Intern Company. That reading and the KSU presentation allow Baldwin to continue working and developing the script before the full premiere production next summer in the Georgia Shakespeare Family Classics Series.
Baldwin’s students have contributed to the play’s creation from the beginning, helping research and explore Fielding’s work and other Tom Thumb fairy tales, as well as working on the structure, language and character development.
“As a writer, often I prefer to begin writing in the room with people. The energy and perspectives of the student actors helps fire my imagination,” Baldwin says. One imaginative aspect of the play is the use of shadow puppets, which have been designed by students Scottie Rowell and Jason Royal.
For Baldwin, this play, with its connections to both Kennesaw State and the Georgia Shakespeare Company, illustrates the collaborative nature of theater production. “Our collaboration has shown us the enormous potential for developing bold new works inspire by classic stories for family audiences,” she says. “We seek cross-fertilization and future collaboration with artists and organizations nationwide dedicated to creating innovative and intelligent works for family audiences.”
Tickets are only available at the door. For more information, call the KSU Box Office at 770-423-6650.
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A member of the 35-unit University System of Georgia, Kennesaw State University is a comprehensive‚ residential institution with a growing student population approaching 20‚000 from 132 countries. The third largest state university in Georgia‚ Kennesaw State offers more than 60 graduate and undergraduate degrees‚ including a new Doctorate of Education in Leadership.
The KSU College of the Arts is one of only four Georgia institutions to have achieved full national accreditation for all of its arts programs.