Challenging Minds, Changing Lives

Department of Theatre & Dance

 
Arcadia
by Tom Stoppard
March 5-8 at 7:30pm
March 9 at 2:00pm
Pipe Dreams Studio Theatre
Corner of West Wood and North Oakland
Milikin University, Decatur, IL
Director
Lori Bales
Set Designer
Jana Henry
Costume Designer
Jenn Flenge
Lighting Designer
Amy Chisman
Music Composer
Kevin Francis Finn
Sound Designer
Matt Borysewicz
Research Assistant
David Pica
Dramaturg
Kayla Bennett
Cast
Thomasina Coverly
Andrea DeCamp
Septimus Hodge
Michael Tuck
Jellaby
Christopher Tuttle
Ezra Chater
Billy Seger
Richard Noakes
Bob Skosky
Lady Croom
Anna Danielson
Capt. Brice, RN
Kevin Buscemi
Hannah Jarvis
Erin Malcolm
Chloe Coverly
Barbie Diewald
Bernard Nightingale
Adam Qualls
Valentine Coverly
Steven Quartell
Gus/Augustus
Kevin Hoffman
Crew
 Stage Manager
Emily Fitzpatrick
Assistant Stage Managers
Joel Kim-Booster
Michelle Buck
Technical Director
David Dawson
Assistant Lighting Designer
Megan Hoffman
 Production Manager
Sarah May
 Properties Mistress
Audrey Mennenga
Paint Charge
 Skylar Adamson
Costume Director
Jana Henry
Costume Studio Manager
Kendra Bell
Cutter/Draper
Jimmy Goode
Costume Crafts
Kendra Bell
Hair/Makeup Designer
Jenn Flenge
Wardrobe Supervisor
Bekki Lambrecht
Master Electrician
Josh Wroblewski
Asst. Master Electrician
Erin Knott
Shop Foreman
Nick Adelsberger
Synopsis
Arcadia moves back and forth between 1809 and 1989 at the elegant estate owned by the Coverly family. In 1809, the 13-year-old daughter of the house and her tutor delve into intellectual and romantic issues. In 1989, the Coverly descendants and two competing scholars research a possible scandal at the estate in 1809.
from the Director
Notes

Septimus:
When we have found all the mysteries and lost all the meaning, we will be alone, on an empty shore.
Thomasina:
Then we will dance.

On the surface of the story we find mathematical equations, mystery, chaos, irregularity, and conflicting theories of the unpredictable and the predetermined; a sense of social, moral, & intellectual posturing pervade. Underneath we find yearning, passion, and desire. At last, fluid and intertwined the themes waltz into the chaos of the final predetermined moments of the play allowing 'caro et spiritus' to unite in their surrender to the ‘dance.’

Ironically Stoppard’s simple message could be lost in the play’s intellectual noise and academic banter. Beneath his deftly drawn characters and their chaotic lives, Stoppard reminds us over and over to seize the moment and embrace our lives before heat runs out and time is no more. The poem below “When Geometric Diagrams” by Novalis, written in 1800, just years before the play’s first moments, recalls Stoppard’s message beautifully.
--Lori Bales
WHEN GEOMETRIC DIAGRAMS . . .

When Geometric diagrams and digits
Are no longer the keys to living things,
When people who go about singing or kissing
Know deeper things than the great scholars,
When society is returned once more
To unimprisoned life, and to the universe,
And when light and darkness mate
Once more and make something entirely transparent,
And people see in poems and fairy tales
The true history of the world,
Then our entire twisted nature will turn
And run when a single secret word is spoken.
-- Novalis (translated by Robert Bly)