Lauren McKinney
Staff Writer
UW Presents is hosting the Aquila Theatre Company in their performance of George Orwell’s 1984. The performance will be tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Arts and Sciences Auditorium.
According to UW Present’s website, the mission of the division is “assisting the College in its broad educational mission by presenting a rich, balanced program of music, theatre and dance, featuring performances by artists of national and international distinction.”
Philip Moline, director of UW Presents, said he hopes people will have an enjoyable theatre experience when they go see 1984.
“We rarely get the chance to see performances by nationally touring artists here in Laramie. I think it’s exciting that the university can contribute to the cultural landscape of the community by bringing these artists in,” said Moline.
Community and student engagement is a big part of what UW Present does. Students are also very grateful for the shows that the department hosts.
“These guest performances bring the students together for a night to see some really cool stuff, and most of the performances are things we would’ve never gotten the chance to see otherwise,” said Justen Glover, a student at the University of Wyoming.
Glover said he tries to go to all of the guest performances as much as possible.
“I think it is important because it brings different perspectives and styles to our little town, where we don’t get as much exposure as we could be getting in a bigger city, like Denver,” said Anna McClow, a student at UW. “Overall it opens my eyes to more types of theatre and makes me a stronger actress at large.”
The Aquila Theatre is located in New York City, New York, however, the company tours the nation going to over 50 cities in the United States. This year Laramie is honored to be one of their destinations.
According to the Aquila Theatre’s website, the theatre “believe[s] passionately that everyone should be given the opportunity to engage with classical drama of the highest quality at an affordable price right in their own community, experience the arts from other places and exchange ideas.”
The theatre specializes in classical theatre. Both of the featured performances in the Aquila Theatre’s annual tour are literary classic adaptations: Homer’s The Odyssey and Gorge Orwell’s 1984.
“I think adapting literary classics to the stage is great for theatre, because people like stories that they know and resonate with, and there’s plenty of unexplored material that would be fun to put on the stage,” said Glover. “Many of these older pieces are still asking the great questions that we like to see in theatrical productions, to at least some extent.”
Glover also said he is excited to see how the Aquila Theatre Company’s performance translates the ideas of 1984 to the stage.
“Aquila is [a] very high caliber theatre company who people don’t often get the chance to see in Laramie. They’re also performing a work that explores interesting themes [that] are relevant to today’s political and social climate,” said Moline. “I picked them because of their high quality reputation as well as the production being 1984, I thought people would be interested in the performance.”
Adaptations to on-stage performances can sometimes have a big fallout in translation, however.
“I think that as creators, you can gain a lot from taking a piece of text and creating something loosely based on it. That’s how a lot of playwrights get their inspiration: they take a piece of text, a movie, or tv show plot line and create a new story loosely based on that, but they make it their own,” said McClow.
However, the hesitancy of the literary adaptation does not discourage people from going.
“Live theatre is so captivating and some performances can sometimes be exactly what you need to see in life to get some clarity! I’m so excited to see the performance tomorrow!” said McClow.
