The Resident Ensemble Theatre’s 2023-24 season will open with The season will open Sept. 21-Oct. 1 with Dame Eileen Atkins’s ‘Vita & Virginia.’
The Resident Ensemble Players’ 2023-24 season will include a look at the power of words; a stage version of “In the Heat of the Night;” a mash-up of “Waiting for Godot” and “Exodus;” and the crowd-pleasing “Deathtrap.”
The season is designed to reflect our lives.
“As theater fans you know this, but I never get tired of saying it, these plays are the stories of us, inquiring into what it means to be human whether that inquiry is humorous, thrilling, or political,” said Steve Tague, producing artistic director for the University of Delaware’s professional acting troupe. “Join us for more of these stories.”
Steve Tague
The new season will open Sept. 21-Oct. 1 with Dame Eileen Atkins’s “Vita & Virginia.” It is adapted from letters and diaries to weave the story of the enduring friendship between aristocratic novelist and poet, Vita Sackville-West, and aloof literary icon, Virginia Woolf.
The play also is meant to stand as a lyrical rebuke to today’s culture of hastily sent emails and tweets, illumiating an age when people wrote profusely and frequently, though few were as adept at correspondence as Vita and Virginia.
Suspense and intrigue will arrive Nov. 2-19 with “John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night.” It was adapted for stage by Matt Pelfrey from the book that inspired the Oscar-winning film of the same name.
Set in 1962, it revolves around what happens when the body of a white man is discovered in a small town of Alabama. Local police arrest the only stranger in town, a black man named Virgil Tibbs.
Little do they know, their suspect is a detective from California. Left with no witnesses, no motive, and no clues, Tibbs becomes this racially-tense community’s only hope of solving the brutal murder.
Season enders
REP returns in the new year on Feb. 8-18 with Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s groundbreaking play, “Pass Over,” a mashup of Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” and the Biblical “Exodus” story.
It focuses on two young black men, Moses and Kitch, stand on the corner – talking trash, killing time and dreaming of the promised land. Emotionally charged with poetic and humorous riffs, this play asks, “What is the value of a young black man’s life?”
Ira Levin’s dark comedy thriller, “Deathtrap” closes the season April 11-28. The story: Once famous playwright, Sidney Bruhl is fresh out of ideas with a string of failures and a shortage of cash. A change in fortune seemd to arrive in the form of a script, sent by a former student, with all the makings of a Broadway hit. The opportunity to steal the script and pass it off as his own may be too tempting for Sidney to ignore. Mayhem ensues.
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A four-show subscription package goes on sale to the public Aug. 1. Prices range from $54 to $104 depending on night and seat location. Single tickets are on sale Aug. 22.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.rep.udel.edu, by contacting the REP box office at (302) 831-2204, or by visiting in person at the Roselle Center for the Arts located at 110 Orchard Road in Newark Tuesday – Friday, noon to 5 p.m.
REP, as the troupe is known, is the professional theatre company in residence at UD. It’s mission is to engage audiences throughout the tri-state region and beyond with outstanding classic, modern, and contemporary plays performed in a wide variety of styles that celebrate and demonstrate the range, breadth and diverstiy of an ensemble of nationally respected stage actors.
Betsy Price is a Wilmington freelance writer who has 40 years of experience, including 15 at The News Journal in Delaware.
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