Friends,
As Nina Simone sort of said, “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day”…and I am feeling pretty good about the REP’s fourteenth season. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Steve Tague. That may ring a bell for some of you, as the guy that literally flipped his wig in the most recent show, Yeah Baby. I am taking over the Directorship of the REP as our former leader, Sandy Robbins, moves into retirement. We hope to have him back to direct the minute he puts down his cocktail.
I think it is worth noting that Sandy goes back to the beginning. He started the Professional Theater Training Program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin way back in the late seventies, before it moved to Newark, Delaware in 1989. Many of you began your UD theater experience at that time with the students of the PTTP. Then he founded the REP in 2008. Neither the PTTP nor the REP has ever known any other leader than Sandy Robbins. We are grateful for that long and fruitful artistic run, and the strong foundation that he laid for the theater arts in the Delaware Valley area, Newark, and here at UD.
I promise not to ruin that and with a two-year interim appointment. How much damage can I do, right?
Our new season of plays begins with a great American comedy, Arsenic and Old Lace. Some of you may have heard the pandemic radio version of the play and now you can see the real thing. It’s about two older women that relieve older gentleman of their loneliness by killing them with arsenic. You can think of it as a euthanasia comedy.
Our second play of the season is a Greek tragedy, Medea. This will be the first time the REP has produced a Greek tragedy, and this particular play speaks to a woman’s place in a man’s world. Doesn’t sound that old, does it, at least not in today’s political climate? It is about love, sacrifice, and even immigration in the sense that Medea is an outsider in this Greek world.
But that’s not all. We are trying something new next year and we’re calling it ChambeREP. You can think of this chambers series as somewhat experimental, riskier, more intimate programming. It gives us a chance to explore more performance styles and opportunities.
Our first ChambeREP piece will kick off in September. We invite you to an intimate performance of Love Letters by A.R. Gurney. My wife, Kathleen Pirkl Tague, and I did a performance of Love Letters here in Newark nearly twenty years ago. But love is love, right, even if it’s twenty years older? Come see.
Then in February, we are excited about a Dance piece called Suite Blackness, Black Dance in Cinema. In the words of the co-author, Hassan El-Amin, it will be “a unique and exciting theatrical experience that celebrates the powerful social, and historical impact of Black dance in film.”
In March, the ChambeREP will continue with Shakespeare. This will be a raw performance focusing on the words of Shakespeare and celebrating the uniqueness of theater. Come enjoy creative people as they make theatre out of nothing but words and your imagination.
We close out our ChambeREP in May, with an undergraduate arts festival that will feature an integration of the arts at the University of Delaware. You may see a piece of performance art, a dancer with a musician, or a painter with a poet. Our intention is to raise the profile and foster the collaboration of young artists at the University of Delaware for all our benefit.
And keep your ears open for our new podcast, Behind the Curtain with the REP, coming soon to a streaming platform near you!
I look forward to this amazing season with you!
Sincerely,
Steve Tague
