GALESBURG -- Knox College Theatre presents Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!" at 7:30 p.m. nightly, Wednesday through Saturday, May 5-8, in Harbach Theatre, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, on the Knox campus in Galesburg, Illinois. Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens, and are available at the door.

"'Ah, Wilderness!' is O'Neill's only comedy -- nostalgic, slightly bittersweet," said the play's director, Ivan Davidson, professor of theatre. "O'Neill is drawing from his own youth and his own family, but the characters are not exact copies of his family. O'Neill described it as the youth that he wished he'd had."

The play depicts teenager Richard Miller, played by William Mayeroff, who gets into trouble for writing a romantic poem to his girlfriend.

"O'Neill's plays have been accused of being hopeless," said Davidson, who has studied O'Neill extensively. "I don't find that at all. O'Neill's point of view is that life is doomed to fail. But it's not 'hopeless.' What makes life worthwhile is the noble struggle against inevitable failure."

O'Neill has fallen out of favor, Davidson said, because contemporary American culture is no longer interested in "pondering deeply. Our entertainment has become escapism, but O'Neill directly confronts us with our limitations."

O'Neill -- the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize for Literature -- wrote '"Ah, Wilderness!" in 1933. It was adapted into a motion picture, and later a musical, "Summer Holiday."

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 46 states and 50 nations. Knox's "Old Main" is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Ah, Wilderness!
Knox College, May 5-8, 2004

Cast
Nat Miller - Nathan Thompson
Essie Miller - Morgan Laurel Ross
Arthur Miller - Scott Doughty
Richard Miller - Bill Mayeroff
Mildred Miller - Shannon May
Tommy Miller - Andrew Calandro
Sid Davis - Jason Cascio
Lily Miller - Jacqueline Dehne
David McComber - Chris Storey
Muriel McComber - Sylvia Davidson
Wint Selby - Doug Porter
Belle - Helen Drysdale
Norah - Emily Richardson
Bartender - Brian Conley
Salesman - Michael Caplan

Crew
Director - Ivan Davidson
Assistant Director - Heather Courtney
Stage Manager - Bethany Woodard
Set/Lighting Designer - Aaron Sayler
Costume Designer - Margo Shively
Assistant Costume Designer - Krista Reeves
Sound Designer/Operator - Evan Sawdey
Props Co-Chairs - Jessica Drew and Julia Rhodes
Deck Chief - Heather Courtney
Run Crew - Chelsea Lynn, Miche Trinque, Jessica Drew, Julia Rhodes, Scott Doughty, Chris Storey, Michael Caplan, Doug Porter

Sylvia Davidson as Muriel McComber, William Mayeroff as Richard Miller, in O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness!

Nathan Thompson rehearses Ah, Wilderness! with director Ivan Davidson (right).