Written by Kate Harner
Sarah Paprocki as Laura Hawkins and Shane Kegler as Washington Hawkins, her brother.
Willimantic, CT -- Students from the Performing Arts Department at Eastern Connecticut State University will perform a theatre rendition of Mark Twain's "The Gilded Age" Nov. 9 - Nov. 14 in the Harry Hope Theatre in Shafer Hall. The play will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on the evenings of Nov. 9, 11, 12 and 13. A 6:30 p.m. performance takes place on Nov. 10. Matinees will be presented at 11 a.m. on Nov. 12 and 4 p.m. on Nov. 14. The public is invited. Tickets are $5 for Eastern students and groups of 10 or more; $10 for Eastern faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens; and $12 for the general public.
David Pellegrini, chair of Eastern's Performing Arts Department, and Ellen Faith Brodie, director of theatre, dramatized and adapted the 1873 novel, "The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today," by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner. Brodie directs the performance. Warner was the founding editor of the Hartford Courant.
As a social satire, the work examines the greed within Washington, D.C., as well as the average family. As a Tennessee family struggles to sell its land and move west, upper-class members Philip Sterling and Henry Brierly attempt to get rich quickly through land speculation. The play reveals excess and corruption in politics and society after the Civil War. Many of its themes translate to modern times.
Tickets can be ordered through the Harry Hope Box Office at (860) 465-5123.
