FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Stacy P. Sherman
Marketing Specialist
Ph: (262) 472-5705
Email: ShermanS@uww.edu
Facebook: www.facebook.com/young.aud
Twitter: www.twitter.com/youngauditorium
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/young-auditorium
Website: www.uww.edu/youngauditorium
Date: March 8, 2016
The Ides of March Brings a Witty Comedy and a Savage Tale
WHITEWATER – Young Auditorium is on American Shakespeare Center’s (ASC) 2016 Dangerous
Dreams tour. The ASC Touring Troupe will present two great stage performances of classic,
entertaining tales. ASC performs Oscar Wilde’s witty, biting comedy The Importance of Being Earnest
on Tuesday, March 15th at 7:30 p.m. and Shakespeare’s The Life of King Henry V on Wednesday,
March 16th at 7:30 p.m. Both events feature an optional “Soundbites” event at 6 p.m. in the Young
Auditorium main lobby. Soundbites are pre-show discussions pertaining to the event given by a member
of the cast or production company. The auditorium is located at 930 West Main Street in Whitewater (on
the UW-Whitewater campus). Ticket prices for each show are as low as $15.50.
In The Importance of Being Earnest, one of the main character notes, “It is awfully hard work doing
nothing." Oscar Wilde’s brilliant and wicked comic masterpiece defines wit and style. This "trivial
comedy for serious people" is at once blissfully silly and outrageously shrewd. This story of two
Victorian aristocrats trying to escape their social burdens combines Wilde’s wit and brilliance with that of
the modern staging of ASC. The Importance of Being Earnest continues to delight audiences with its
-moreplayful language, charming characters, and biting look at contemporary society.
ASC Guest Director for The Importance of Being Earnest, Kevin Rich, notes, “ASC’s approach to the
classics makes the work as exciting for a popular audience today as it was in its day.” He continues,
“Comedy is rarely given the artistic merit ascribed to drama or tragedy. This annoyed Oscar Wilde
(the playwright), who created a work of art that challenged social norms and ideals in quite subversive
ways, making silly things seem important, and helping us laugh at ourselves.”
Henry V is the story of England’s hero-king and the greatest upset in European military history. It is
Shakespeare’s finale to his great history plays. More than that, Henry V – at once touching, heroic,
savage, and comic – explores the nature of greatness and its connection to theatre.
ASC co-founder and artistic director, Jim Warren, states (about Henry V), “The older I get, the more
excited I am about the secret and not-so-secret stories Shakespeare weaves with amazing layers of
ambiguity in every single play he wrote. This production weaves together parts from several plays
written about King Henry V. We’re doing all the big scenes and speeches Shakespeare’s company
may have cut when they originally performed the play. And we’re going to work our butts off to give
you all of the flavors, colors, and seemingly contradictory facets that Shakespeare provides.”
The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA, recovers the joys and accessibility of
Shakespeare’s theatre, language, and humanity by exploring the English Renaissance stage and its
practices through performance and education. Founded in 1988 as Shenandoah Shakespeare
Express, the organization became the American Shakespeare Center in 2005 and can be found
online at www.americanshakespearecenter.com.
The Young Auditorium serves as a presenting organization for the performing arts and as an
educational and cultural center enriching the lives of regional communities, offering a full season of
world-class performing arts presentations. Tickets for any show can be purchased online, by calling
the Box Office at (262) 472-2222, or in person. The Greenhill Center of the Arts Box Office is located
inside the UW-Whitewater Center of the Arts building near Barnett Theatre on the UW-Whitewater
Campus (930 West Main Street in Whitewater). The Young Auditorium is adjacent to this building,
and parking is always free at the venue. To learn more, visit www.uww.edu/YoungAuditorium or
follow at www.Facebook.com/Young.Aud.
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