English students and faculty unite for play

While most people dread the idea of spending Valentine's Day alone, students and faculty in the English Department celebrated love gone awry last night in a student-faculty performance entitled Unrequited.

The performance, sponsored by the English Undergraduate Advisory Board and the English Department, took place before a mixed crowd of students and faculty in the Annenberg Studio Theatre. It featured scenes from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, William Wycherley's The Country Wife, and Stella Feehily's O Go My Man.

Maayan Dauber, who co-chairs the English UAB, credits the English Department's Undergraduate Chairwoman Emily Steiner with the idea of putting on a performance featuring undergraduates, graduate students and faculty. They wanted to put on the show "to infuse the department with a little verve," Dauber said.

Since the performance was scheduled so close to Valentine's Day, Laura Michalak, a senior majoring in English, and the student co-director of the play wanted it to have a love theme - but not your typical romantic story. All of the scenes, Michalak said, "deal with aspects of love thwarted and feelings disregarded."

Choosing the scenes to perform was no easy task. "You're taking three wonderful plays and paring them down into segments," Michalak said. "They have to make sense in their own right." She credited Marcia Ferguson, an English professor and the faculty co-director, with choosing "The Country Wife."

English professor John Richetti acted in all three scenes and served as the link that tied the play together.

"I thought he was hilarious," College senior Alba Tuninetti commented after the show. "He did a really great job and is a great professor as well."

Undergraduates, graduate students and faculty rarely have a chance to interact, but they cooperated fantastically in the production of the play.

"Whatever divisions may exist in the classroom just didn't show up on the stage," Michalak gushed. "Everyone worked together so seamlessly; . they were off laughing and joking with each other when they weren't on stage."

In the past, the English Department had sponsored annual student-faculty plays, but they stopped ten years ago - all involved with the play said they were happy to see the tradition revived.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.