Triton College debuts performance of 'Doubt' on Dec. 2-11
John Patrick Shanley's “Doubt” reflects the real-life angst, dilemmas and uncertainty that pervades one of today's most provocative issues. Triton College's Performing Arts Department will perform the dramatic presentation from Dec. 2-11.
A 2005 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner, “Doubt” takes place in 1964, where strong-minded Sister Aloysius, a Catholic school principal in the Bronx, wrestles with her conscience and uncertainty as she confronts her unsettling suspicions about young Father Flynn. The play served as the basis for the 2008 movie of the same name, starring Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and has been described by New York Newsday as “a lean, potent drama … passionate, exquisite, important and engrossing.”
Triton students and community members make up the cast and stage crew, bringing many years of professional experience and immense talent to the production. Two cast members will make their debut on the Triton stage. Oak Park resident Tracy-Elizabeth Clay (Mrs. Muller) has studied acting at the Walnut Street Theatre and the Arden Theater, both in Philadelphia, the Studio Theater in Washington D.C., and more recently, the Acting Studio under Adrianne Cury. A stage, screen and voice-over actor, Bryn Packard (Father Flynn) of Chicago is a member of the sketch comedy film group Born Ready Films, starring in their feature “The Garage Hoppers,” and also has appeared in stage productions produced by Second Stage and the Village Players. Stage veterans Janelle Coats of Chicago and Patti Paul of Melrose Park, an After Dark Award recipient for Outstanding Performance, who play Sister James and Sister Aloysius, respectively, complete the cast.
Applying their talent, theater experience and artistry to the play's mystery and drama is Ian Zywica (set designer), Joelle Beranek (costume designer) and Marcella Nowak (lighting and sound designer).
Director Amy Fenton looks forward to bringing such a complex and poignant piece to Triton's stage. “While the play takes place in the relatively isolated world of a Catholic church and school, the moral and ethical struggles the characters wrestle with are, unfortunately, quite common. Recent events with the Penn State scandal remind us that we live in a world where the unthinkable is possible.”
Fenton is assisted by Stage Manager Michaela Lichvanova and Dramaturg Maggie Rizzo.
The play is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York. It was originally produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club on Nov. 23, 2004, and originally produced on Broadway by Carole Shorenstein Hays, MTC Productions, Roger Berlind and Scott Rudin on March 31, 2005.
Production times are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, from Dec. 2-11. The play will be performed without an intermission in the Cox Auditorium of the Fine Arts Building, Room J-108, on Triton's campus. Triton College is located at 2000 Fifth Ave. in River Grove.
Tickets are $12 for general admission and $10 for students, faculty/staff and seniors. For more information or to reserve tickets, call the Visual, Performing and Communication Arts Department at (708) 456-0300, ext. 6932.