Photo by Madison Meyer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Harding University Theatre Department will perform \u201cThe Rivals\u201d for this year\u2019s winter play on Dec. 8, 9 and 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The play will be performed with a \u201ctheatre-in-the-round\u201d layout, a space where the audience surrounds the stage on all sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Steven Frye, chair of the Theatre Department, is directing the play and said he chose \u201cThe Rivals\u201d because he thought it would be a good fit for this time of year and students would find it funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fun show,\u201d Frye said. \u201cIt\u2019s fast and furious. We\u2019re going to have cookies at intermission because biscuits, Christmas biscuits. And we\u2019re just going to have a great time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frye said that after casting the performers, they began with table reads and working to understand their characters. Because of the theatre-in-the-round set, rehearsals and directing had to take a different approach than usual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think one of the things that I love about what we do in theatre is that we try to make things that our audience will enjoy and will learn and will grow from as well,\u201d Frye said. \u201cSo \u2018The Rivals\u2019 is one of those projects that we go, \u2018This is classical literature. It is funny and people need to be exposed to these things.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Junior Faith Noelle Carpenter plays the main character, Lydia Languish, and said the process of rehearsing has been both interesting and fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy character Lydia is, simply stated, a pill,\u201d Carpenter said. \u201cShe\u2019s so rich that she is remarkably out of touch, and yet she isn\u2019t inherently bad. She\u2019s just a romantic. She loves to paint a picture by living big and loud which is always a fun way to play a character.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carpenter said she appreciates the relationships she has gained through this play and that she thinks the Harding community will appreciate the similarities between \u201cThe Rivals\u201d and real life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sophomore TJ Brown will perform as Mr. Faukland. He said playing this character has helped him explore aspects of his own character and life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLearning what makes him the way he is, where all his anxieties come from and what his motivations really are, has made me reflect on myself and my relationships,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot about myself in the process and I\u2019m thankful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brown said the setting of Bath, England, serves as both an escape for the characters and as a good break from the stress of finals and the holiday season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The show will be performed in the Ulrey Performing Arts Center. Tickets can be purchased for $10 at hardingtickets.com. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Photo by Madison Meyer The Harding University Theatre Department will perform \u201cThe Rivals\u201d for this year\u2019s winter play on Dec. 8, 9 and 10. The play will be performed with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15201,"featured_media":17388,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17387"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17407,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17387\/revisions\/17407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}