Herman Daniel Farrell III

A hundred slender white birch tree trunks.
A scattering of casual, summer-house furniture all covered in white muslin.
Grass grows on a desk, and there are stars in the sky.
A woman's white summer dress hanging from a tree branch.
Later on, there might be 300 wine glasses half-filled with rosé wine.
-- From Charles Mee's Summertime

DANVILLE, KY--Centre College drama students will present four performances of Charles Mee's surrealist romance, Summertime . Under the direction of visiting guest artist Herman Daniel Farrell III, the performances will take place on April 19-22 at 8 p.m. in Weisiger Theatre at the Norton Center for the Arts on campus.

Described as " a sweet, dreamy, romantic comedy from the world of As You Like It , A Midsummer Night's Dream , The Cherry Orchard , Moliere, and Magritte," Summertime takes place in a balmy Martha's Vineyard garden that serves as an outdoor playground for adults, where all the cares of the world are mercifully suspended but the pursuit of love.

Two visiting guest artists have been invited to campus to work on the production.   Martha Peñaranda is the costume designer for the show. Peñaranda, who resides in Texas, divides her time between scenic design and the design and production of contemporary textile art works. Randy Susevich, assistant professor of theatre arts at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is the lighting designer for the production.

Cast members include: Meredith Bell, Karen Biscopink, Margaret Chapin, Cameron Comstock, Josh Davis, Chad Dike, Thompson Galetovic, Tyshaun Lang, Julia Leist, Ginger Pennington, Kate Pieratt, James Villines and Sara Watson.

This past March, members of the cast and crew traveled to Louisville to meet the playwright for an afternoon tea. Mee was in Kentucky working on new piece titled Hotel Cassiopeia at the Humana Festival of New Plays.

Describing the visit with Mee, Director Farrell comments, "He guided us into his thoroughly postmodern viewpoint. He reminded us that his work does not dictate, does not determine and certainly does not seek singular, simple answers to complex, complicated questions."

Herman Farrell was born in New York and currently resides in Midway, Ky.   Farrell's plays have been workshopped and/or produced at the Flea Theater, The Echo Theater Company, Crossroads Theater Company, The Working Theater, Primary Stages, Manhattan Theater Club, and the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. His play, Rome , premiered at the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival. Boycott , a screenplay co-written by Farrell based on the book Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott by Stewart Burns, was made into a movie by HBO Films in 2001.

Farrell has received numerous honors and awards including the Playwriting Award at the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival, a Peabody Award, and a NAACP Image Award.

Summertime is suited for mature audiences only.   Tickets may be purchased at the box office at Centre College's Norton Center for the Arts or by calling (859) 236-4692.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

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