The Theater and Dance Department’s fall musical, The Threepenny Opera, ended its run this weekend.
The play was directed by BSU Professor Suzanne Ramczyk, with senior Ryan Connolly serving as dramaturg. The pair’s collaboration on last year’s VetSpeak, a Dramatic Documentary was recently recognized with an award by the New England Theatre Conference.
The BSU production of The Threepenny Opera reimagined the play as a guerilla-theatre piece wherein a company of modern outcasts uses the power of theater to protest the injustices of society.
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill used John Gay's 18th-century The Beggar's Opera as source material for what became the pair’s best-known work. The play exposes the hypocrisy of Victorian London, as it depicts the travails of an outlaw named Mack the Knife.
The production continued the trend set by last year’s VetSpeak, by taking on difficult subject matter and giving voice to those who are often marginalized.
VetSpeak was based on stories of military veterans who are part of or related to the BSU community or from the greater-Boston area. The text was drawn directly from letters and other forms of reminiscence.
Director Suzanne Ramczyk said putting the piece together was difficult at times, but the end result was powerful.
“I’m really proud of the students, we were honored and humbled by these stories,” she said. “It was a very emotional journey for the students, and often difficult. Some of the stories dealt with horrific material.”
Mr. Connolly, who also served as dramaturg on VetSpeak described the passion that went into the creation of the piece.
“The process of working on VetSpeak was really a labor of love,” he said. “The level of commitment and respect that the cast, crew, designers, and artistic team approached the material with was truly inspiring.”
At last weekend’s NETC awards banquet, the play earned a Moss Heart Memorial Award in its category. The award recognizes and encourages outstanding theatrical productions throughout New England of play scripts that present affirmative views of human courage and dignity, that have strong literary and artistic merit, and which in their productions, exemplify fresh, imaginative, creative treatment within the intent of the playwright, according to the NETC website.
