The New Athens Players' “Spotlight on Susan Glaspell" at the Village Theatre -- February 24 through March 5.
Friday, February 24, through Sunday, March 5
Village Theatre, 2113 East 11th Street, Davenport IA
An entertaining, illuminating program of three short stage pieces connected to a famous yet still frequently neglected Pulitzer Prize-winning writer from Davenport, the debuting theatre company the New Athens Players presents Spotlight on Susan Glaspell at Davenport's Village Theatre, its February 24 through March 5 run showcasing two premiering works and the celebrated playwright's lauded one-act Trifles.
Based on an actual crime and investigation that Susan Glaspell reported on in Des Moines, Trifles demonstrates the quiet solidarity between women in the context of a murder trial. In a small Iowa farmhouse, surly and reclusive farmer John Wright was found murdered. His apathetic wife Minnie was the prime and only suspect. And as Glaspell's one-act begins, Minnie is sitting in jail for the crime as a small group of people enter the Wright home, looking for the clues that would explain why a woman would suddenly strangle her husband in the night. While County Attorney Henderson, Sheriff Peters, and neighbor Mr. Hale roam the house looking for clues, the Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale examine the “trifles” of a country kitchen, such as frozen jars of preserves and a poorly sewn quilt. But as the women look closer at Minnie’s world, they make a bone-chilling discovery in this seminal play of early 20th-century American theatre that helped define American realism as we know it.
In addition to Trifles, Spotlight on Susan Glaspell will offer a dramatization of Susan Glaspell’s short story “The Rules of the Institution," a piece that showcases a young woman’s rebellion against arbitrarily imposed traditions of behavior. An Iowa Seer Comes Home to Greece, meanwhile, serves as a memorial of Susan Glaspell’s husband Jig Cook and his untimely death abroad, and is composed of excerpts from the poetry of Cook along with the reminiscences of Susan Glaspell and fellow Quad Cities writer Floyd Dell.
Directing Spotlight on Susan Glaspell is the New Athens Players' founder Mischa Hooker, a Continuing Lecturer of Classic at Augustana College who has performed numerous classical works in the area, among them Genesius Guild's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Electra and the Prenzie Players' As You Like It and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Among Hooker's actors for the New Athens Players' debut, Trifles boasts Michael Carron, Kate Farence, Alaina Pascarella, Jay Ruefer, and John R. Turner; The Rules of the Institution features Farence, Pascarella, Turner, Dee Canfield, Patti Flaherty, Olivia Hoft, Kitty Israel, and Christina Sanders-Ring; and An Iowa Seer Comes Home to Greece stars Canfield as Susan Glaspell, Carron as Floyd Dell, and Dave Bonde as Jig Cook.
As Hooker states, "Inspired by the example of Susan Glaspell and the Provincetown Players, the New Athens Players plan to produce plays that are small-scale and intimate, yet adventurous and creative. With one foot in the traditions of the past and one foot in the innovative possibilities of the present and the future, we will pay homage to dramatic classics of all sorts, including the works of Susan Glaspell and the Provincetown Players, and those they drew on and influenced in turn, while also presenting newer works that give voice to the concerns and issues of the present.
"In keeping with the goal of highlighting the often unrecognized achievements of Susan Glaspell, the New Athens Players will produce at least one piece written by Susan Glaspell or adapted from her work each season. In forging new theatrical ideas and aims, The Provincetown Players were relentless experimenters and especially presented programs of multiple one-act plays by different writers; this tradition of experimentation and attention to short forms will be continued in many of our programs. The name of the group is inspired by a particular suggestion George Cram Cook made, that after their experience with the Provincetown Players, they should 'gather the old Davenport crowd together … and make it a new Athens!'”
Spotlight on Susan Glaspell will be performed in the Village of East Davenport's Village Theatre February 24 through May 3, with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Admission is $12 for individuals and $20 for a pair of tickets, patrons are asked to request reservations through NewAthensPlayers@gmail.com at least 24 hours before showtime, and more information on the production is available by visiting Facebook.com/NewAthensPlayers.
