Lion Players give Shakespeare a modern guise
?In Shakespeare’s “The Two Gentlemen From Verona,” it is pretty doubtful the eponymous pair were Michael Jackson and Billy Idol.
That isn’t stopping an ’80s themed version of the Bard’s play at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus this week.
“We’ll be doing ‘The Two Gentlemen From Verona’ with an ’80s twist with 1980s background music and characters that look like pop stars Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Idol and Boy George,” said Lynn Petko, production advisor to the Lions Players, a thespian group made up of college students and professors.
Now in its 14th year, the annual mounting of a Shakespeare work by the Lions Players got its start when a group of Penn State Fayette students went to Shakespeare professor, Dr. Dennis Brestensky, and told him they wanted to try their hand at “Romeo and Juliet.” The theatrical group has performed a work from the Shakespeare canon on campus every year since.
“We try to stage something different every year,” Petko said. “Over the last 14 years, the only play we repeated was ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.'”
The bard’s madcap comedy was the work on which Petko first became a member of the Lion Players cast when she took on the role of Titania after the original actress assigned the part had to leave school and withdraw from the play. Since then, she performed in many of the productions taking on the roles that included everything from the porter in “Macbeth” to the gravedigger in “Hamlet.”
This year’s production, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” is a comedy that tells the tale of two best friends whose relationship is strained when one of them falls in love with the other’s girlfriend. Being a comedy, everything eventually resolves to the satisfaction of everyone concerned and the play ends on a happy note.
While not as recognizable as “Romeo and Juliet” or “Hamlet,” Petko thinks the audience will connect with this year’s play.
“‘Two Gentlemen’ is one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, and those familiar with his work might like to contrast it with some of his latest comedies,” Petko said.
One new addition to this year’s presentation is a Friday evening “Dinner with the Cast” option on campus that includes a choice of a stuffed chicken breast, fish or a vegetarian dish. There is a cost for the dinner, which begins at 5?p.m., and reservations can be made by calling 724-430-4248.
For the production, assistant director Steven Wilt, a senior English major from Mt. Pleasant, tackles the role of Proteus, one of the friends, while Micah Fuge, a mechanical engineering major, plays the role of the other friend, Valentine. As their female love interests, Hannah Bodnar portrays Julia and Shirley Rojas is cast as Sylvia.
“Our setting of a mall in the 1980s is one basic unit that revolves to create four separate scenes,” Petko said. “Chris Omiros, an alumnus who’s already worked on sets for seven previous productions, is a fantastic artist and the set designer for the show.”
Petko said that Shakespeare always includes comic relief in his plays and that “Two Gentlemen” is no exception. Professor Nathaniel Bohna, who she said always has a way of developing an outlandish character, will play Thurio, an older, dull-witted man who thinks he’s God’s gift to women.
John Peck is cast as Speed, a servant with a penchant for creating confusion, and Petko will take on the role of Launce, Proteus’ clownish servant whose dog, Crab, happens to be invisible.
Nicole Guappone directs the cast of 17, some of which are in their second and third Lions Players Shakespeare production.
“For a cast that doesn’t have much of a theater background, we certainly put on a most amusing and entertaining comedy,” Petko said.
William Shakespeare’s “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” is at the Maggie Hardy Magerko Auditorium in the Community Center on the campus of Penn State Fayette at 12:15?p.m. on April 7 and at 7?p.m. on April 8 and 9. Admission is free of charge. For groups, call 724-430-4248.