URI Theatre announces 2009-2010 season


KINGSTON, RI—September 16, 2009 – The University of Rhode Island

Theatre selections for the 2009-2010 season offer something for everyone.

The prize-winning department will again perform its popular productions in the Robert E. Will Theatre and J Studio of the Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston campus.


Here’s the lineup:


•BOY GETS GIRL: A contemporary chiller about a woman whose life of accomplishment is quickly destroyed by a disturbed admirer. The play works powerfully at its most basic level, as a suspenseful tale about the unraveling of a strong woman’s sense of security in the urban jungle. TIME magazine called the play “gripping, important, and the finest, most disturbing American play in years!”

Performances: Oct. 15 through 17 and 22 through 24, 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 18 and 25 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $16 for general admission, $12 for seniors, URI faculty/staff, and $10 for students.


•THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE: Music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Rachel Sheinkin. Six adolescents in the throes of puberty, overseen by grownups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn’t everything and that losing doesn’t necessarily make you a loser. The show’s Tony Award winning imaginative team has created the unlikeliest of hit musicals about the unlikeliest of heroes: a quirky yet charming cast of outsiders for whom a spelling bee is the one place where they can stand out and fit in at the same time “The lovably, entirely adorable new musical…Spelling Bee is, in essence, A Chorus Line with pimples.” – New York Times. As a special treat: A different Rhode Island mystery celebrity speller will perform at each performance.


Performances: Dec. 3 through 5 and 10 through 12, 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5 and 12 at

2 p.m. and Dec. 6 and 13 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $18 for general admission, $14 for seniors, URI faculty/staff, and $12 for students. The Saturday, December 12 performance is dedicated to the memory of Thomas R. Pezzullo, a former vice president for University Relations at URI and frequent actor who died in 1992 at the age of 49. All proceeds from that performance will go directly to the Thomas R. Pezzullo Memorial Scholarship Fund. The Theatre Department was pleased to award scholarships from the fund this past year to four theatre students: Rachel Nadeau from Coventry , Maria Hyde from North Kingstown , Ben Rose from Charlestown and Max Ponticell from Braintree, Mass.


•A FLEA IN HER EAR: A new version of George Feydeau’s farce by David Ives is one of the greatest of French farces, perhaps the greatest farce ever written. Raymonde Chandebise suspects that her husband, Victor, a placid and successful insurance executive, is secretly having an affair. To find out, she and her friend Lucienne write him an anonymous love letter suggesting a rendezvous at the shady Frisky Puss Hotel. Thinking the letter was intended for his coworker, the gigolo Tournel,Victor sends Tournel off to make the rendezvous in his place. Meanwhile, Lucienne’s jealous Spanish husband shows up with pistols and Camille, Victor’s nephew, fails to warn everyone due to his ridiculous speech impediment. Winner of the 2006 Jefferson Award for best adaptation, the play was called “…a hilarious evening of classic comedy.” – Chicago Critic

Performances: Feb. 25 through 27 and Mar. 4 through 6, 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 28 and Mar. 7, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $16 for general admission, $12 for seniors, URI faculty/staff, and $10 for students.


•UNBOUND: The Rhode Island premiere of this powerful play. Based on the journals of British actress Fanny Kemble (1809-93), playwright Laura Marks portrays a life of a remarkable woman of artistry, curiosity, and humanity. In the 1830’s on a tour in New York City, Fanny falls in love with the charming, wealthy gentleman, Pierce Butler, and happily and willingly gives up her theatrical career to become his wife and soon the mother of his two daughters. Despite his resistance, she wins him over to the notion of leaving Northern society for life on his family plantation in Georgia where who and what she encounters changes her forever. The depth of her understanding of what it means to live off of others’ labor creates a moral dilemma and painful life decision that is the heart and soul of Unbound.

Performances: Apr. 22 through 24 and Apr. 29 through May 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Apr. 25 and May 2 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $16 for general admission, $12 for seniors, URI faculty/staff, and $10 for students.


Tickets can be purchased online at www.uri.edu/theatre. For reservations, call the URI Theatre Box Office at 401.874.5843. For group rate information, call 401.874.2712. For mailing list or additional questions, call 401.874.5921 or 5922. URI’s Theatre Department encourages volunteers to help with its programs. Call 401.874.5922 for more information.