University Times

Caryl Churchill's political comedy, "Top Girls," will open the Pitt theatre arts department's 1995-96 mainstage season. Combining famous women from history with women from literature, Churchill explores the role of women in contemporary society and the sacrifices they have made on the road to equality. David L. White will direct the play, which will run Oct. 10-22 in the Studio Theatre, Cathedral of Learning basement.

Next up, department chairperson W. Stephen Coleman will direct Christopher Hampton's sexual chess match, "Les Liaisons Dangereuses." Based on the celebrated and notorious 18th-century novel, the Tony Award-winning play will be performed in the Stephen Foster Memorial Theatre Nov. 7-18.

In February, Pitt students and a guest director will collaborate on internationally renowned Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki's adaptation of the classic Greek mythological drama, "Clytemnestra." Director-playwright Suzuki founded the Suzuki method of acting. Pitt students will train in this method in a production blending Western theatre styles and Japanese stage techniques. The script was translated by Pitt's Thomas J. Rimer, a professor of East Asian languages and literatures. Yukihiro Goto of San Francisco State University will be the guest director.

"Clytemnestra" will run in the Stephen Foster theatre Feb. 6-17.

To end the mainstage season, Richard Keitel will direct the ribald comedy, "The School for Scandal" by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The production will run April 9-21 in the Studio Theatre.

Theatre arts also will stage three workshop productions; a number of student-directed lab productions; and the weekly Friday Night Improvs, featuring the department's improvisational troupe in a series of performances beginning at 11 p.m. in The Pit, at the corner of South Bouquet and Sennott streets.

Workshop productions, all of which will be staged in The Pit, will include: "Grand Guignol" by Andre de Lorde (Oct. 26-Nov. 4); George C. Wolfe's "The Colored Museum" (Feb. 22-March 2), and "Enrico IV" by Luigi Pirandello (March 28-April 6).

Lab productions this fall will include: "Elliot Loves" by Jules Feiffer, Sept. 28-30 in The Pit; William Burroughs's adaptation of "Dutch Schultz," Oct. 5-7 in the Cathedral loading dock; "Identity Crisis" by Christopher Durang," Nov. 2-4 in the Studio Theatre; and "Phaedra," adapted from Racine's "Phedre," Nov. 16-18 in The Pit.

For reservations and more information, call 624-PLAY (624-7529).