“Laundry and Bourbon” is the first of five Third Onion plays in four weeks.
The Third Onion – the student-run production scheme of the Northern Illinois University School of Theatre and Dance – has announced an ambitious schedule of plays to be performed over a four-week period beginning the first week of April.
Students will present four original plays and another by playwright James McLure in NIU’s Stevens Building Corner Theatre between Thursday, April 4, and Friday, May 3.
McLure’s one-act “Laundry and Bourbon” will be directed by MFA candidate Kendra Holten Helton and will stage at 10 p.m. Thursday, April 4, through Saturday, April 6. The play revolves around characters Elizabeth and her friend, Hattie, as they fold laundry, watch TV, sip bourbon and Coke and gossip about the many secrets which come with small-town life. Tickets are $3 at the door.
“Daughters of Waterloo,” by professor Robert Schneider, will stage at 10 p.m. Thursday, April 11, through Saturday, April 13. This first reading of a new, generation-gap comedy by the head of NIU’s play-writing faculty will benefit the BFA/MFA audition fund. The performance is free, but donations are welcome.
“The Mechanics of Birds,” a new play written by BFA in acting candidates Matthew Yee and Mackenzie Parker, will run at 10 p.m. Thursday, April 25, through Saturday, April 27. The cast will create a flying machine in front of the audience and prepare to take flight. Tickets are $3 at the door.
“I wanted to write something that captured the essence of those mad artists and inventors who literally sacrificed life and limb in order to leave the ground – if only for a moment,” Yee said.
“Nu Plaie Knight,” a staged reading of a new work created out of this semester’s Playwriting Studio course, features writing by BA in theatre studies student Hailey Shelton and MFA in acting candidate Jacob Smith and will be performed only at 10 p.m. Thursday, May 2. Admission and popcorn are free, and audience discussion after the play is welcome.
Admission is also free for “Pyramid Scheme,” written by Schneider as well. The reading, under the direction of Anthony Perrella Jr., will take place one time only at 7 p.m. Friday, May 3. During “Pyramid Scheme,” the audience will travel from century to century as architects, archeologists and miscellaneous mystics delve into the mysteries of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza, the world’s largest tomb.
For additional information, contact Schneider at (815) 753-8263 or by email at rschneider@niu.edu.
