Littlechap, whose allegorical rise to success is countered by the instability of his private life. The play, is staged impressionistically, with the cast decked out in mime and circus makeup and Littlechap periodically stopping the action to address the audience.
The Dining Room
The play is set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household, the place where the family assembled daily for breakfast and dinner and for any and all special occasions. The action is comprised of a mosaic of interrelated scenes—some funny, some touching, some rueful—which, taken together, create an in-depth portrait of a vanishing species: the upper-middle-class WASP. The actors change roles, personalities and ages with virtuoso skill as they portray a wide variety of characters, from little boys to stern grandfathers, and from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids.
An Evening of Documentary Theatre & Theatre of Fact
Theatre that wholly or in part uses pre-existing documentary material (such as newspapers, government reports, interviews, etc.) as source material for the script, ideally without altering its wording. Documentary Theatre and Theatre of Fact is a movement to bring social issues to the stage by emphasizing factual information over aesthetic considerations. Documentary Theatre and Theatre of Fact is an outgrowth of the Living Newspaper technique employed in the 1930s by the WPA Federal Theatre Project in the U.S., the form became popular in the 1960s. This production was a part of the I.B. Theatre's Independent Project. Students researched and produced the final project.
The Miser
The play is the story of a rich moneylender called Harpagon, whose feisty children long to escape from his penny-pinching household and marry their respective lovers. The play is a comedy of manners to which the 17th-century French upper classes presumably objected.
The Machinal
The story of the play involves Helen, whose entire life has been dictated to her. She follows the rituals that society expects of a woman, however resistant she may feel about them, and subsequently marries her boss, whom she finds repulsive. After having a baby with him, followed by an affair with a younger man who fuels her lust for life, she is driven to murder her husband. She is found guilty of the crime and is executed in an electric chair. The production was Classen's entry in the OSSAA contest. The production was awarded the State Championship.