Shepherd's Rude Mechanicals Medieval and Renaissance Players to perform in Toronto

ISSUED: 23 September 2009
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
(Shepherd's Rude Mechanicals Medieval and Renaissance Players to perform in Toronto)

Shepherdstown, WV--The Rude Mechanicals Medieval and Renaissance Players, the early drama troupe associated with Shepherd University's English Department, has been invited to perform at Chester 2010, an international medieval drama festival and conference, held at the University of Toronto on May 21-24, 2010. The company has been invited to perform Play 14, the "Last Supper and Betrayal." Approximately 18 students will participate.

The Rude Mechanicals is devoted to performing socially conscious productions of medieval and Renaissance drama. Past productions include "The Harrowing of Hell," "The Second Shepherds' Play," "Mankind," "Death and Destruction," and Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and "King Lear." The Rude Mechanicals have performed in Shepherdstown, Washington DC, Toronto, Denmark, and in the summer of 2001, they performed "The Death of Herod" at the Festival for the International Society for Medieval Theatre in Groningen, Netherlands.

The Chester Cycle of processional pageant wagon plays, performed in the western English city of Chester from the fourteenth through the sixteenth century, enacts the history of the world from creation to last judgment.

A performance of the "Last Supper and Betrayal" will take place in April at Shepherd with auditions open to all on Wednesday, November 18 and Thursday, November 19.

For more information, contact Dr. Mary Elizabeth Ellzey, director of the Rude Mechanicals Medieval and Renaissance Players, at bellzey@shepherd.edu.

-30-YOUNG

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