Sarah Witte, a junior theatre major, plays Armande, one of the learned ladies. The ladies, Witte says, are very strong characters—”…so strong that they rub it in other people’s faces.” Certainly intellectual superiority, on the part of the ladies as well as other characters, is a theme in the play.

“Have you ever met someone who knows so much that instead of explaining something in a polite and productive way, they talk down to you and you feel like you’re right back in the fold up desk you had in middle school? That is these women in a nutshell.” Witte says.

Annmarie Caporale, a sophomore theatre and sociology major, plays Martine, the sassy servant girl who tries to stand up to the learned ladies. “Martine is the brass voice of reason,” Caporale says.

Caporale says she has played other similar roles but enjoys playing a foil to the ladies with Martine’s plain, often crude speech and abrasive personality. “Molière loves to poke fun at faux intellects and uses Martine as a way to show how ridiculous learned people can be.”

This is Witte’s fourth production at Augsburg. She says it has been a challenge for her to play a “learned fool.” She adds, “My main obstacle has been not letting my opinions of her being an idiot get in the way.”

Witte says the main difference between this and the other productions in which she’s been involved is that there are hidden meanings in Molière’s writing. “This play can be interpreted in so many ways,” she says, “and I look forward to hearing what the audience takes away from our version.”

The Learned Ladies

November 5 – 14

Tjornhom-Nelson Theater

By Molière

Translation by Richard Wilbur

Directed by Martha Johnson

Tickets are $10 general public; $8 ACTC, faculty, staff, and students; $2 Augsburg students and children under age 12. For additional information, call 612-330-1257. To make a reservation, e-mail your ticket request including number and type(s) of tickets to: boxoffice@augsburg.edu.

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Written by Sarah Ruhl, Eurydice is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus told from the point of view of Eurydice, his wife. “It’s almost like a dream,” Johnson said. “The play uses images you would only see in a dream but is also very human. There’s a little bit of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ in it.” Johnson believes patrons will appreciate the contemporary humor, Ruhl’s ability to play with language, and the unusual set designed by Joe Stanley.

Johnson calls Eurydice a poignant and humorous exploration of death, loss, and memory. Written when Ruhl was grieving the loss of her father to cancer, the play focuses both on the relationship between husband and wife as well as on Eurydice’s relationship with her father. Ruhl used the play to imagine what would happen if Eurydice met her father in the underworld, since he had been dead at the time of her wedding, in the underworld.

The role of Eurydice is played by Shannon O’Brien, a sophomore theatre major whose father, Paul O’Brien, is also an actor and a student in the Augsburg MBA program.

“I wanted to become an actress because of my father,” Shannon said. “I saw him in Amadeus at the Guthrie when I was in middle school, and I fell in love with the theatre.” Paul offers advice when his daughter asks for it and helps her memorize lines but says he tries to stay out of her way. “She is doing things that are very tough, being a student and playing the lead in the play,” he says. “I just try to be there and be a supportive dad.”

Paul learned about Augsburg’s MBA program when he brought his daughter to campus to begin her first year. After he was accepted into the program, she told him not to expect to see her every time he was on campus. “In my first year, this was kind of my territory,” she said, but soon she came to enjoy seeing her father at Augsburg. The pair has dinner together every Monday before Paul goes to class and Shannon goes to rehearsal. “All my friends love him.”

Shannon builds on the close relationship with her father in her role as Eurydice. “Toward the end of the play when my father and I are in the underworld, he is bringing me to Orpheus and we are walking down an imaginary aisle as though at my wedding. At that time, I think about what it would be like to lose my dad,” she said. Her father, who lives with multiple sclerosis, said “Every father dreams of walking his daughter down the aisle. Because I have MS, that is uncertain.”

Performances of Eurydice are Oct. 31, Nov. 1, 6, and 8 at 7 p.m., and Nov. 2, 8, and 9 at 2 p.m. in Tjornhom-Nelson Theater in Foss Center. Tickets are $10 general public; $8 ACTC, faculty, staff, and students; $2 Augsburg students and children under age 12. For reservations or other information, call 612-330-1257.

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“Top Girls,” by British playwright Caryl Churchill in 1982, explores

feminist themes and encourages a deeper look at socialist ideals. Marlene, “Top Girls” main character, is a businesswoman who has recently achieved a promotion within the employment agency where she works. Her sister, Joyce, is a working-class cleaning woman who

adopted Marlene’s child at birth and has raised her as her own. While the sisters are joined in caring for their daughter’s welfare, the two are quite different in their political and class views. Marlene is presented as an individualist who does whatever it takes to move ahead. She values power and success for herself at the expense of others. Her sister Joyce represents a more socialist-collective perspective that sees achievements of women happening only when all women and other oppressed groups are included.

Caryl Churchill explores themes of women’s success and survival through the context of the daughter Angie. While there might seem to be a wide chasm between success and survival, Churchill appears to look upon it as a continuum, albeit a fragile one. At any time, a circumstance or relationship can pave the way for progress or failure. In order to succeed, women negotiate time and relationships, compromise goals with motherhood, and depend on or exploit others. We see some of this in our contemporary culture and in our political

system as women gain equality with men. In “Top Girls,” Caryl Churchill asks how women negotiate in a male-dominated landscape and what they give up to participate.

Tickets for Mainstage Productions are $10 for the general public; $8 for ACTC faculty, staff, and students; and $2 for Augsburg students and children under age 12. For reservations or other information, call 612-330-1257.

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