Suffolk University Students Explore Time-Travel, Gender Fluidity and Transformation in Orlando

After a night of debauchery, Duke Orlando awakens in the morning as a Duchess. During her/his/their frolic through 17th century Constantinople, Victorian and 20th century England - and places and selves in between - Orlando strives to unlock the mystery of identity: "Who then am I?"

A Suffolk University Theatre student production. Directed by A. Nora Long.

Managing Director Jim Kaufman notes, "through this production our students have joined the long tradition of artists inspired by Orlando's story and its roots in mythology, chivalric tales, and Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem, Orlando Furioso (now 501 years-old) - Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing), composer George Frideric Handel, painters Tiepolo and Ingres, and many artists of the modern era."

Guest director A. Nora Long, Associate Artistic Director of the Lyric Stage Company, helms this theatrical exploration into the fluidity of self. Orlando's quest invites audiences into an examination of the world of construct (or deconstruct) where gender and time transformations are possible.

Long remarks, "Orlando is particularly timely given the current political climate. It has been transformative to work with the students at Suffolk as they explore the fluid landscape of Orlando's magical world injecting joy and insight into the production in the most delightful way."

Orlando launches a new Theatre Department- Lyric Stage Company of Boston collaboration. Long will direct the Lyric Stage Company's professional production of Orlando in its 17-18 season. Suffolk faculty are providing design expertise for the Lyric Stage production. Suffolk students will have the opportunity to intern on that production and others at the Lyric Stage. The Lyric Stage will provide theatre students with class workshops and mentoring. Ms. Long will also consult the department on new script development, connecting Suffolk students with the Lyric Stage's rich, award-winning professional program.

Orlando is a Suffolk University Theatre Department student production which runs from April 6-9th at the Modern Theatre.

ABOUT THE MODERN THEATRE AT SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY

The Modern Theatre at Suffolk University is the newest performance space in the Washington Street Theater District. The grand facade of the historic theater, Boston's first designed specifically for showing movies, has been painstakingly restored and reconstructed as part of the Modern Theatre and residence hall development. Inside, an intimate jewel-box theater showcases central design elements that are a modernization of some of the most distinctive historic features of the 1914 theater. The state-of-the-art, 185-seat venue is ideal for live performances, conversations, readings and film screenings and promotes excellence and innovation through all of its programming. For more about these and other programs at the Modern visit www.moderntheatre.com. The Modern Theatre is managed and programmed by the Theatre Department at Suffolk University. www.suffolk.edu/ModernTheatre.

ABOUT SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY

Suffolk University, located in historic downtown Boston, with an international campus in Madrid, is a student-centered institution distinguished by excellence in education and scholarship. Suffolk University offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs in more than 90 areas of study. Its mission is to empower graduates to be successful locally, regionally, and globally.

ABOUT Sarah Ruhl

Sarah Ruhl'S (Adapter) plays include Stage Kiss, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony Award nominee for best new play), The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2005; The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play, (Pen American award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Dead Man's Cell Phone (Helen Hayes award); Melancholy Play (a musical with Todd Almond); Eurydice; Orlando, Demeter in the City (NAACP nomination), Late: a cowboy song, Three Sisters, Dear Elizabeth, and most recently, The Oldest Boy and For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday. Her plays have been produced on Broadway at the Lyceum by Lincoln Center Theater, off-Broadway at Playwrights' Horizons, Second Stage, and at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Her plays have been produced regionally all over the country, with premieres often at Yale Repertory Theater, the Goodman Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, and the Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago. Her plays have also been produced internationally and have been translated into over twelve languages.

Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. An alum of 13P and of New Dramatists, she won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. She was the recipient of the PEN Center Award for a mid-career playwright, the Whiting Writers award, the Feminist Press' Forty under Forty award, and a Lilly Award. She proudly served on the executive council of the Dramatist's Guild for three years, and she is currently on the faculty at Yale School of Drama. Her book of essays on the theater and motherhood, 100 Essays I don't have time to write, was a Times Notable book of the year. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

ABOUT A. NORA LONG

A. NORA LONG (Director) formerly on staff in the Suffolk University Theatre Department, is currently the associate artistic director at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, and an artistic director of New Exhibition Room, a Boston-area fringe company that specializes in developing ensemble-based new work. In addition to her administrative role in the company, she has directed and led the creation of several projects with NXR including Shh!, an exploration on the role of censorship which attended the New York International Fringe Festival after a sold-out run in Boston; The Paper Bag Princess, an all-ages show,Midnight at the Last Night Cabaret (half of the live Zombie Double Feature) and EEP! Show. Recent directing credits include Murder for Two, Mr. Burns: a post-electric play, Dear Elizabeth (Lyric Stage Company of Boston), After Miss Julie (Northeastern University), Cymbeline, Macbeth (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company Apprentice Program), Noises Off!, Ruthless: the Musical! (Hackmatack Playhouse), The Real Thing, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me(Bad Habit Productions) and Candyland (New Exhibition Room). She received her MFA in dramaturgy from The American Repertory Theatre/Moscow Art Theatre School Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University and her BA from Sarah Lawrence College in theatre and Italian. She was the recipient of the Fall, 2012 Dramaturg Drive Grant given by the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and nominated for Best Director by the Independent Reviewers of New England twice. You can learn more about Nora's work at her online portfolio: http://notallnora.wix.com/anora