Students joined actors on Oct. 16, for a participatory play called “Mosque Alert” at the Kupferberg Center. “Mosque Alert” is about the construction of a new mosque in Naperville, Ill, which led to conflicts between two families of different religions. The two families learn more about each other and eventually put their differences aside. The cast consisted of actors such as Noam Ash, star of YouTube’s “My Gay Roommate.” “The creation of these characters really grew out of a development process,” Jamil Khoury, the play writer, said. “We started looking into this broader issue of the resistance of building mosques across the US.” The play began with each character’s backgrounds and belief systems. Mostafa Khalil,…
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The Three Penny Opera explores on the ills of capitalism
The Queens College Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance – along with the Aaron Copland School of Music – debuted their production of Bertolt Brecht’s “The Three Penny Opera” on March 13 at The Kupferberg Center for the Arts. As the audience filled in, the stage was already set with very industrial with rusty stairs looking like fire escapes, rusty platforms and dirty walls. A sign seen held the phrase “shut not your ears to the needy,” which foreshadowed the issue of poverty. This reimagined production focused on New York City’s underworld of the 1980s, where dirty brothels, gangs and corrupted police ran rampant. From songs about the advantages of being in a position of wealth…
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“Our House” contemplates the evil of television
How far is one willing to go for their five minutes of fame? This question is answered in the dark comedy “Our House,” presented by Queens College’s Drama, Theatre, and Dance Department. The show, written by Theresa Rhebeck, was held in the small performance room in Rathaus Hall, which gave the piece an intimate feeling. Before the show, audience members viewed multiple television sets onstage, broadcasting news segments from the past, which were later utilized in the show. An interesting addition to the show was the usage of video equipment to project real-time segments of characters onto the onstage TVs. The biggest challenge was operating the televisions simultaneously, director Susan…
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Fall season starts with a ‘Kiss’
On Oct. 16, the Queens College theatre department debuted their fall theatre season to a sold out audience with Craig Lucas’ “Prelude to a Kiss”. Under direction of theatre professor Claudia Feldstein, the production starred both QC students and professors. Perhaps best known for the 1992 film adaption of the same name, starring Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan, “Prelude to a Kiss” is a modern fable about a couple whose relationship is tested by a supernatural encounter of the “Freaky Friday” variety. Students Manuel Estevez and Bryn O’Connor played opposite one another as the couple, Peter and Rita, who meet at a party and eventually get married. Despite opening night…
