LA RONDE

BY: Arthur Schnitzler
DIRECTED BY: Beata Pilch

Opened March 2000

CAST: Nicole Wiesner, Ryan Bollettino, Shannon O' Neill, Alex Present, Blaine Vedros, John Gray, Myles Leevy, Chris Popio, Derek Brummet, Drew Affeld
LIGHTING DESIGN: Richard Norwood
SOUND DESIGN: Bob Rokos
COSTUME DESIGN: Beata Pilch
SET DESIGN: Beata Pilch
STAGE MANAGER: Khanisha Foster
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Alex Present
FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY: Danny Robles

La Ronde...
A story of infection.

A series of sexual encounters, where the highest and lowest classes are effectively reduced to a common denominator.

A voyeurism into the lives of ten couples as they prepare for and recover from sex.

The dehumanzing depiction of universal drives, an invitaion to imagine violations of public health and threats to the order of society.

A prostiture, a solidier, a maid, a gentleman, a wife, a husband, a sweet young thing, a poet, an actress, a count and a bad case of maddness.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT:

Arthur Schnitzler, an Austrian playwright, is one of the seminal forces both in German speaking and world drama. He was in every sense a total man of letters: playwright, novelist and short-story writer. But he was also a physician, and perhaps this is the real basis for his acute perception into the mind and soul of fin-de siecle Vienna. Precisely as is Freud's work, Schnitzler's literary output is inextricable from the social and intellectual milleu of his time, the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the fin de siecle decadence and pleasure seeking atmosphere that frequently crosses the border into disease. It was out of this malestrom that Schnitzler wrote. His characters are determined by the pleasure principle; their aim is to squeeze from life its ultimate drop of sensual gratification. Once he became actively engaged in his literary career, Schnitzler continued to review medical publications on such diverse topics as hysteria, hypnosis, sexual pathology, and psychotherapy, and it is these interests that allowed the literary man to dissect his characters as incisively as if he were conducting a delicate surgical operation.