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USM Gulf Park Campus to Host The Changeling February 25

Fri, 02/15/2019 - 01:52pm | By: Jenny Tate

Atlanta-based Resurgens Theatre Company will present Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's The Changeling on Monday, Feb. 25 at 5:30 p.m. in the Fleming Education Center Auditorium on The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Gulf Park Campus in Long Beach.

The Changeling, a highly regarded English Renaissance tragedy, dramatizes the moral dilemma of a woman whose father engages her to marry a man she does not love. As she attempts to engineer circumstances that would enable her to marry her preferred suitor instead, she finds herself ensnared in morally compromising situations.

This is the second event in the spring 2019 Cultural Arts Series, "Representing the Experiences of Women, From the English Renaissance to Right Now." Admission is free, and members of the University community and general public are invited to attend.

The Changeling is a play of uncanny contemporary relevance, particularly in light of the recent #MeToo movement. Written and first performed at a historical moment when the idea of companionate marriage was gaining widespread appeal, Middleton and Rowley's tragedy nonetheless highlights the degree to which Renaissance women were never truly free from patriarchal structures of power and coercion,” said Dr. Christopher D. Foley, event organizer and assistant professor of English at USM.

“As a play deeply concerned with the contemporary issues of sexual coercion, women's consent, and the transgression of moral boundaries, The Changeling is as relevant today as it was in seventeenth-century England.”

The Changeling is directed by Dr. Brent Griffin, Artistic Director for the Resurgens Theatre Company and Assistant Professor of English at the University of North Georgia.

Resurgens' performance of the play features audience interaction, minimalist staging, Renaissance costuming, original pronunciation, and an emphasis on verse speaking.

The public is also invited to a 3:45 p.m. pre-performance workshop titled, “Original Practices and the Performance of Gender in English Renaissance Drama” and a 4:45 p.m. pre-performance talk titled, “The Changeling in Historical and Contemporary Contexts.” A Q&A will follow the live performance. Refreshments will be served beginning at 4:30 p.m.

The Gulf Park Cultural Arts Series is made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

For more information about The Changeling pre-performance workshop, pre-performance talk, or performance, contact Dr. Christopher Foley at Christopher.D.FoleyFREEMississippi.