Assembling a summer theater season is a complicated process. One decision depends on another, which, in turn, leads to a third. Arthur Feinsod, a professor of theatre and drama at Indiana State University, is the artistic director of the Crossroads Repertory Theatre in Terre Haute. "This year," he says, "we have a theme that runs through all four of our plays: ‘darkness to light.' Each play, in some way, follows that."
The Plays
"Our opening show is Stephen Schwartz's musical Godspell, which I'm directing. I'm very excited about it. I love the stories of the New Testament. In our production we have a group of eleven people who've gathered in a bus station in an urban area. Their particular journey from darkness to light is through seeking to invigorate their faith by reenacting the stories of the gospel."
"We have quite a variety of directors this summer. Dale McFadden from Indiana University, Sharon Ammen from Saint Mary of the Woods College, and Brandon Wentz, who's gone onto a professional career since he graduated from ISU."
"Dale directs Theresa Rebeck's solo piece Bad Dates, with Julie Dixon. The particular ‘darkness to light' story here is of a single mom trying to make a living, raise an alienated teen aged daughter and find Mister Right."
"Sharon, in some ways, is drawing on her background as a Southerner, directing Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart. It's a comedy with some very engaging characters, in a Southern Gothic style. I'd say that that theme here works, as the darkness of a dysfunctional family is overcome by the family's own strong internal ties."
"Brandon is directing a brand new piece that comes from The Arabian Nights. These are the tales that the young harem girl tells the sultan to stay alive… pretty definitely a ‘darkness to light' effort. The adaptation is being done by Jonathan Golembieki and Rachelle Martin Wilburn. They've chosen the familiar story Aladdin, as well as the less familiar Tale of Two Sisters."