GALESBURG -- Knox College Theatre will present "Dancing at Lughnasa," by Brian Friel, at 8 p.m., Oct 22-23, and at 7:30 p.m., Oct. 29-30, in Harbach Theatre, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, on the Knox campus in Galesburg, Illinois. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens and are available at the door.

While "Dancing at Lughnasa" is characterized as a "memory play," in which Friel re-creates the rural Ireland of his youth in the 1930s, director Robert Whitlatch also finds relevance to current events. "Friel shows us a close-knit rural family confronting the turmoil created by social and economic forces from outside their simple rural culture," said Whitlatch, Seeley Professor of Theatre at Knox College.

"In the United States, we have already experienced the industrial revolution, which arrived a century late in rural Ireland," Whitlatch said. "Now, in the 21st-century, we're dealing with globalization and de-industrialization."

More than fifty students auditioned for the play. Among the eight selected were three first-year students -- nearly half of the cast for the play.

"First-year students have as many opportunities as upperclass theatre students to get directly involved in major productions," said Whitlatch, who has directed theatre at Knox for more than 35 years. "But there's much more happening than just one play per term. We have student-directed productions in Studio Theatre, almost every week through the end of the term in November."

Other fall productions include performances of excerpts from Neil Simon's "The Good Doctor," one-act plays by Josephine Carter and Kent Broadhurst, dance workshops with The Anatomical Theatre, "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett, and informal dance and theatre improv performances.

Fall Term Theatre Schedule

Knox Theatre Department

Prior Main Stage Productions
Ah Wilderness by Eugene O'Neill
Trojan Women / Lysistrata
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard