Monday, November 26, 2007

UNT theater undergrads to stage The Pitchfork Disney

It's "a dreamlike piece... that deals primarily with fear... particularly childhood fears."

By John P. Meyer

University Players, a University of North Texas student theater organization, plans to stage half a dozen performances of the Philip Ridley play, The Pitchfork Disney, at Art Six Coffee Shop (in the garage at 424 Bryan Street). Shows will begin at 8 p.m. on Nov. 29 and Dec. 1, 7 and 8, with Sunday matinees starting at 2:30 on Dec. 2 and 9.

The entire production is being run by students, with Joey Folsom and Alex Worthington (both juniors in theater performance) co-directing. Mr. Folsom is a three-time recipient of the Gaylord-Hughes Drama Scholarship and co-artistic director (and resident playwright) at Denton's Sundown Collaborative Theater. Mr. Worthington's experience has been mostly in acting (he played CB in a recent performance of Dog Sees God), though he has also worked in the areas of lighting, sound design and publicity.

Philip Ridley: East Ender with a funny hat.

Philip Ridley is an interesting character - a native London East Ender who divides his creative energies between fiction, playwriting, film directing/screenwriting and photography. His work is described as being a mix of "the menacing and the magical." Pitchfork was his first stage play, premiering in London in 1991. It seems to be a difficult play for audiences ("...a bit like a mystery in which the clues are carefully hidden, and never revealed," says Big Apple reviewer Les Gutman), so it should be interesting to see how the University Players' production stacks up against previous ones.

Mr. Ridley's style is often described as "barbaric beauty." Hm.

For further information, contact University Players head producer George Ferrie at 281-960-2296 or gmf0028@unt.edu.

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