A new twist on classic theatre canon will unfold when the SUNY Oswego Theatre Department season opens with a staged reading of “I F***ing Hate Shakespeare” at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 7 and 8, in the Tyler Hall lab theatre.
Admission is free for this production, which is directed by theatre faculty member Steven Mazzoccone from a script by Genia Femia.
“The play chronicles the writer's personal journey through college and graduate school as an aspiring playwright who finds that her own work is always relentlessly compared to Shakespeare's plays,” Mazzoccone explained.
The script “questions the predominance of Shakespeare in academia and probes how his plays are taught in academic settings,” Mazzoccone said. “There are queer and feminist themes present in the play as well.”
The cast of what is originally a one-woman play includes Tessa Uline, Jileiny Padilla, Chrisaury Guzman and Victoria Evanchick, with Madelyn Kane as understudy for all roles. Autumn Jones serves as assistant director.
The Oct. 8 performance also will feature a post-show talk back spearheaded by Whit Emerson, the new theatre faculty dramaturg, leading the study of the art or technique of dramatic representation. The talk back also will feature Erik Wade of the English and creative writing faculty with student panelists from college organizations The Women's Center and Pride Alliance.
For more information, contact Mazzoccone at steven.mazzoccone@oswego.edu.