'Middletown' at ASU
The production of 'Middletown' has drawn much of its inspiration from the work of Edward Hopper, the 20th century artist known for his depictions of small-town, American life.
Playwright Will Eno’s “Middletown” might be summed up in the
Latin phrase, “In media res,” meaning “in the middle of things.”
The play is about
life – all of it, especially the middle parts between birth and death, those parts we experience
consciously.
Audiences can experience Eno’s acclaimed work Nov. 1 to 4 and Nov. 7 to 11 at
Appalachian State University’s I.G. Greer Studio Theatre, courtesy of the ASU Department of Theatre
and Dance.
As Eno says, “They don’t know what happens to you when you die, so how can they
know, really, what happens to you when you’re born?”
This production has drawn much of
its inspiration from the work of Edward Hopper, the 20th century artist known for his depictions
of small-town, American life.
Eno and Hopper share an ability to capture the play of
light and shadow and hope and despair that can tease through the most mundane of human
experiences. Moments of rapture, sweetness, gentle humor, loneliness and pain all receive their
“slant of light” in “Middletown,” Eno’s quiet meditation on people caught doing whatever it is
they do when in the middle of things.
Eno is an American playwright based in Brooklyn, N.Y.
His career took off when his play, “Tom Payne: Based on Nothing,” was a finalist for the 2004
Pulitzer Prize in Drama.
Appalachian faculty member Derek Davidson, director of the
production, described Eno as “a complicated writer, who likes to combine the almost embarrassingly
simplistic – the quotidian – with things that are philosophically resonant.”
The Nov. 1 to
3 and Nov. 7 to 10 performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Matinee performances on Nov. 4 and 11. begin at
2 p.m.
Tickets are general admission and priced at $8 for students and youth (ages 6 to
18), $13 for faculty, staff and seniors, and $15 for adults.
Tickets are available
in person at the Valborg Theatre box office Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., by phone
at (828) 262-3063 and online at http://www.theatre.appstate.edu.
I.G. Greer Studio Theatre is
located on the side of the I.G. Greer Hall below the auditorium. The door is down a staircase on
the side of the building. Parking is available after 5 p.m. on campus in faculty lots and the
College Street parking deck near the Belk Library.
For more information, visit
http://theatre.appstate.edu/events/middletown, or call the box office at (828) 262-3063.
