Zonta Club offers sneak peak of WSCC play

VICTORY TWP. – The Zonta Club of Ludington Area along with West Shore Community College Performing Arts is offering the “Zonta Sneak Peek,” of classes Moliere comedy “The Schemings of Scapin.”

The discounted presentation will be held during the final dress rehearsal performance of the play on Wednesday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Center Stage Theater at West Shore Community College.  This partnership will benefit the Zonta Club of Ludington Area’s community service projects while offering an affordable alternative for people to see this show.  Tickets are available for $10 in advance or $12 at the door through WSCC’s Ticket Office (843-5507) or through any Zonta Club member.

Professional actor and playwright Tim Mooney, who has created the adaptation for the WSCC production, will be guest artist, playing the title role of the witty servant Scapin.

“Our production will have a ‘Commedia dell’arte’ treatment and rely heavily on broad comic physical sight gags, the kind popularized in silent films by comedians like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, as well as slightly more sophisticated verbal humor,” says Dr. Rick Plummer, director of the production.  He adds the comic servants and foolish old men will all wear half masks, in the tradition of Commedia.

The masks for the production have been crafted by master mask-maker Jonathan Becker, who began sculpting masks while a student in Paris, France, and who founded Theater-Masks, Inc. when he returned to the United States.  His clients include Disney Theatrical, Focus Films, NBC, the Bravo Cable Network, and many theaters around the country.  Becker is professor of Movement and Acting at Ball State University.

Moliere, considered by scholars and audiences alike as the greatest comic playwright of all times, creates a comedy of enormous proportions in “Scapin.” First staged in 1671, the play draws heavily on the Italian tradition of the Commedia dell’arte; a form of masked comedy that influenced not only Moliere and Shakespeare but many writers across Europe for over 200 years.

“It is also where we get so many stock comic characters that we have seen for centuries, including most of the recognizable characters from TV situation comedies. Foolish old men, clever servants, braggart warriors, young lovers, these are the characters from the Commedia and in the kind of ridiculous characters who people Moliere’s farce,” says Plummer.

All proceeds will benefit the WSCC Liberal Arts Scholarship Fund of the Zonta Club of Ludington Area.  Zonta is an organization of local business and professional women who work to improve the legal, political and economic status of women, serving both international and local communities.

For additional information regarding Zonta Club of Ludington Area, contact Tasha Dault at 843-5805.