Urinetown

November 16-20, 2010  8pm

Gotta pee?  Can’t pay?  Too bad!  That is the excruciatingly hilarious premise of Urinetown:  the Musical, the sensation of the 1999 New York International Fringe Festival and winner of nine Tony Awards in 2001.  Penn’s Theatre Arts Program returns the show to its rough and raucous downtown roots in an in-your-face cabaret-style production in the Annenberg Center’s intimate Bruce Montgomery Theater, running November 16-20, at 8:00 p.m. 

Dr. James F. Schlatter of the Theatre Arts faculty directs this production, a featured program in the University of Pennsylvania Provost’s Year of Water events.

The Theatre Arts Program has hired Zachary Wiseley  as the Musical Director/Accompanist for this production. Philadelphia professional Millie Hiibel will be designing costumes,  Peter Whinnery will design lighting and Eric Baratta designs the scenic environment. Shannon Murphy, choreographer and dancer has joined the artistic team of URINETOWN as a movement director/consultant.

Special Event: Following the Thursday, November 18 performance:

“LAUGH ‘TIL YOU CRY”

THE AMERICAN MUSICAL AND THE CREATION OF ANEW POLITICAL THEATRE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

Following the Thursday, November 18th performance of Urinetown, produced by Penn’s Theatre Arts Program, a panel of Penn faculty and scholars will discuss the production in the context of new developments in the form of the American musical, modern American political theatre, and the influence on both of Bertolt Brecht’s plays and theories in creating a new political musical theatre in the 21st Century. The production and this panel are made possible in part by the generous support of the Provost’s Office, in conjunction with the Year of Water theme this year in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Panel Participants:

David Fox. Panel Moderator. Director of Academic Initiatives for the Provost's Office, including Penn Reading Project and New Student Orientation. Lecturer in Theatre Arts, where he teaches courses in American musical theatre and directs productions.

Dr. James F. Schlatter. Member of the Theatre Arts faculty. Director of Urinetown.

Special research and teaching interest in modern American theatre, including the political theatre of the 1930’s and 1960’s.

Professor Anat Feinberg. University of Heidelberg. Visiting Scholar in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Specialist in postwar German theatre and Jewish Studies.

Mr. Stanley Laskowski. Lecturer in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Special interests include the attainment of the UN Millenium Development Goals for water and sanitation, and global environmental management and regulation. He is one of the founders of the Philadelphia Global Water Initiative.