     |
RELEASED: April 17, 2003
DANVILLE, KY—Centre College drama students will offer four performances of Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Under the direction of Patrick Kagan-Moore, the show runs April 23-26 at 8 p.m. in Weisiger Theatre at Centre's Norton Center for the Arts.
The cast includes: Eric Joshua Davis (Corporal), David Flora (Singer), Will Johnston (Azdak), Ginger Pennington (Natella), Emily McMurry Tate (Grusha) and Adam Watson (Simon). The play is produced by DramaCentre, Centre's dramatic arts program.
Written in 1944, The Caucasian Chalk Circle is one of Brecht's best-known and most-produced plays. The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a play within a play, and the interlocking stories ask the question "who has a right to the earth?" Based on a Chinese play, the drama is similar to the Biblical parable of the judgment of Solomon as two women claim the same child. A resourceful but disreputable judge must decide who is the most maternal claimant.
Kagan-Moore, professor of dramatic arts at Centre, comments, "The Caucasian Chalk Circle is intended to focus attention on large social issues. And the issue that drives the play is one that Brecht returned to throughout his life: war. What is it, who makes it, and what does it do to those who are powerless to stop it?
"As a nation, we are engaged in 'nation building' exercises around the world—in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq. We tend to regard stability as a paramount good in these situations, and in most cases it probably is. But in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Brecht suggests that such assumptions are worth challenging and that for much of the world, stability and oppression are closely related."
Kagan-Moore has been at Centre since 1991. A teacher and producing theatre artist for more than 30 years, Kagan-Moore has directed more than 75 productions in professional, academic and community settings. He adapted Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray for the Actors' Guild of Lexington.
Tickets may be purchased through the box office at the Norton Center for the Arts at (859) 236-4692.
- end -
Communications Office
Centre College
600 W. Walnut Street
Danville, KY 40422
Public Information Coordinator: Telephone 859-238-5714