Our Country's Good

BRADLEY UNIVERSITY THEATRE PRESENTS OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD

Epic Drama of Art, Survival, and the Founding of a Nation

BU Theatre Offers New $5 Student Ticket Price

 Our Country’s Good, the final play in Bradley Theatre’s 2015-2016 season, will open April 21, with performances Thursdays through Sundays until May 1, in the Meyer Jacobs Theatre at the Hartmann Center for the Performing Arts.

A modern classic by American playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, the celebrated 1988 play depicts the true story of a 1788 stage production presented by transported convicts in the British penal colony of New South Wales, Australia. The play is set shortly after the eleven ships of the storied First Fleet made landfall to deliver their cargo of exiled criminals and Royal Marines under the leadership of visionary governor Arthur Philip.  

The convicts are a hardened bunch, mostly illiterate, from all over the British Isles. Tasked with building a nation in the face of an alien landscape, insufficient food, savage officers, crippling class hatred, and no likelihood of return home, the motley cast find their lives leavened by the redemptive possibilities of art. Over the course of their rehearsals, directed by a shy, idealistic lieutenant, they come together in ways that exemplify the transformative power of theatre and sow the new values of fair play, egalitarianism, and equal justice that even today characterize the nation they would build.

In Our Country’s Good, playwright Wertenbaker delivers a world of harsh realities that pit Enlightenment utopianism against the stark imperatives of British empire-building. Sustained by unnerving inner strength, gallows humor, and the possibilities of love – and art-- blooming in even the most arid of emotional terrains, the denizens of this play’s distant community demonstrate the enduring power of the human spirit.

Susan Felder (The Seagull, The Mountaintop) directs a diverse ensemble cast of freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Nearly all play multiple roles, as stipulated by the playwright, whose theatrical metaphor includes convicts doubling as officers and many of the women doubling in male roles.

The production’s scenic and lighting design are by Mark Lohman, with period costumes, hair, and makeup by Becki Arnold, and sound by BU alum and technical director Carrie Brant.

Please note: The play contains mature subject matter and depicts corporal punishment.

Playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker

Dramatist Timberlake Wertenbaker became one of the most influential of Britain's contemporary playwrights in the late 1980s, after various of her award-winning plays including Our Country's Good and Three Birds Alighting on a Field were premiered at the Royal Court. Born Lael Louisiana Timberlake Wertenbaker in New York and raised in Northern Basque Country, France, she was the daughter of Charles Wertenbaker - a foreign correspondent for Time Magazine - and novelist Lael Tucker Wertenbaker. She moved to London in the early '80s, where she became a resident-writer for the small theater companies Shared Experience in 1983 and the Royal Court Theatre from 1984-85. There her play Abel's Sister, premiered, as did The Grace of Mary Traverse, which won The Players Most Promising Playwright Award. She is better known for her later play Our Country's Good'- adapted from Thomas Keneally's novel The Playmaker. It also premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, in 1988, directed by Max Stafford-Clark. In recent years, the play has become a standard text in British schools. Wertenbaker has continued adapting (and sometimes translating) various novels and plays, including works by Marivaux, Anouilh, Maeterlinck, Pirandello, Sophocles and Euripides. She has also written several screenplays including the film adaptations of Edith Wharton's The Children and Henry James's The Wings of the Dove. She also wrote the television play, Do Not Disturb, and she is the author of various BBC radio 3 plays including Dianeira, and an adaptation and translation of Euripides' Hecuba. Her play, Galileo's Daughter, adapted from the Dava Sobel novel was premiered by the Peter Hall Company in Bath. In 2013 the 25^th anniversary production of Our Country’s Good toured Great Britain and opened in London.

CAST

The Convicts

John Arscott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kyle Peck

Mary Brenham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ellie Stamper

Dabby Bryant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amanda Dacks

Caesar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Arís-Allen Roberson

Ketch Freeman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chris Dolphin

Meg Long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ali Pinkerton

Liz Morden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cassy Lillwitz

Robert Sideway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Derek Yeghiazarian

Duckling Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..Samantha Zucker

John Wisehammer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Trevor Baty

Officers of the Colony

Captain Arthur Philip, Royal Navy (RN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ali Pinkerton

Major Robbie Ross, Royal Marines (RM) . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chris Dolphin

Capt. Watkin Tench, RM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kyle Peck

Capt. David Collins, RM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . Trevor Baty

Captain Jemmy Campbell, RM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Arís-Allen Roberson

Lt. Will Dawes, RM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cassy Lillwitz

Lt. George Johnston, RM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amanda Dacks

2^nd Lt. Ralph Clark, RM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cody Cornwell

2^nd Lt. William Faddy, RM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Samantha Zucker

Midshipman Harry Brewer, RN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Derek Yeghiazarian 

Reverend Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ellie Stamper

Aboriginal Australian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Arís-Allen Roberson 

About the Director

Susan Felder teaches many of the BU acting classes as well Movement and Voice. She has taught theatre at Loyola University–Chicago, Northwestern University, Notre Dame, Montana State University and Oklahoma State University. She was a teaching Fellow in Playwriting at Bates College. Susan directed last year’s THE MOUNTAINTOP for Bradley University. Other university directing credits include: BEYOND THERAPY (OSU), WAITING FOR GODOT, WASTELAND, THE BLUE HOUR, IN THE HEART OF AMERICA, HOUSE OF BUTTERFLIES (LOYOLA), and e.e. and MISPLACED for Northwestern University in conjunction with Steppenwolf Theatre. She holds an MFA from the Academy for Classical Acting (George Washington University). Other directing credits include ROMEO AND JULIET with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra; and MACBETH, THE TEMPEST, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, JULIUS CAESAR, and ROMEO AND JULIET for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. She has acted as verse coach for numerous Shakespeare productions around the country including last season’s PERICLES at Chicago Shakespeare. Playwriting credits include WASTELAND, which received a critically acclaimed world premiere at Chicago's Timeline Theatre Company and TEMPLE SPIRIT which will receive its world premiere in Dallas this spring. Professional Directing and Acting credits include work in Chicago and regionally at Steppenwolf, The Goodman, Chicago Shakespeare, Northlight, Next, Writer’s Theatre, Court, Remy Bummpo, Orlando Shakespeare, Indiana Repertory, Detroit’s Attic Theatre and Montana Shakespeare. She was awarded Jeff and After Dark Awards for acting - best ensemble (LARAMIE PROJECT – Next Theatre); and a Thespie award for best supporting actress (MOTHER'S DAY - The Boarshead Theatre). Susan is a proud member of Actor’s Equity and the Dramatist’s Guild.

ABOUT BRADLEY UNIVERSITY THEATRE

Bradley University Theatre is a vital academic and cultural asset to both our university community and the Central Illinois region. Our mission is straightforward and comprehensive: to teach and promote the intellectual foundations and creative processes of the theatre; to train aspiring theatre artists in a range of performance and production disciplines; and to provide a comprehensive educational experience in a deeply nurturing, student-centered environment. The Department of Theatre Arts at Bradley University is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre and active in many professional organizations including the Association of Theatre in Higher Education, and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. 

OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD, by Timberlake Wertenbaker

When:

            April 21 – May 1, 2016

            Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun 2:30pm

Where:

            The Hartmann Center for the Performing Arts

            1423 West St. James, Peoria, IL 61625

Tickets and information:

            Bradley University Cultural Events Box Office

            309.677.2650

            www.bradley.edu/theatre

Ticket Prices:

$5.00   Students (with ID)

$10.00 Faculty and Seniors

$12.00 General Public