 Purchase, NY - The Purchase Repertory Theatre presents Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott’s The Odyssey, February 29-March 8 at The Performing Arts Center.
The Odyssey is directed by Woodie King Jr., founder and producing director of New Federal Theatre in New York City. Performances are February 29, March 1, 6, 7 & 8 at 8 PM and March 2 & 8 at 2 PM.
A free performance for middle and high school students will be presented on March 5 at 10 AM, which will include a post-show talk back, lunch on campus and break out sessions with Purchase Career Development and Student Life. Reservations can be made by calling Daphne Richards at 914-251-6832 by February 15.
With its inspired interweaving of Homeric Caribbean themes, Walcott’s play springs from the same imaginative sources as his epic poem Omeros. With its vast sweep and richly figurative language, The Odyssey confirms Walcott is as compelling a playwright as he is a poet.
Woodie King Jr.’s directorial credits are extensive. He is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement, an NAACP Image Award, and AUDELCO Awards for Best Director and Best Play of the Year. He has directed Checkmates on Broadway, A Raisin in the Sun, starring Esther Rolle and Kenny Leon at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, and Charles Dutton in Splendid Mummer at American Place Theatre, among many others. He has directed for professional theatre companies across the country and has been a visiting professor at Oberlin College, Florida State University and Ohio State University where he also directed. He is a graduate of Will-O-Way School of Theatre in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Lehman College, New York, and received his MFA in directing from Brooklyn College.
The Odyssey is presented through the generous support of the Wachovia Foundation Fund for the School of the Arts.
The Purchase Repertory Theatre, featuring students from the Purchase College School of the Arts, Conservatory of Theatre Arts & Film, creates exciting and bold interpretations of classic and contemporary plays while bringing to the stage for the first time the next generation of actors, designers and technicians.
The Purchase Repertory Theatre Season continues with Tennessee Williams’ American Blues, April 25-May 3.
Tickets are $20, $15, seniors & non-Purchase students, and can be ordered by calling the Box Office at 914-251-6200 or visiting www.artscenter.org.
Purchase College, State University of New York, is located at 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, N.Y.
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