NKU Announces Three World Premiers for Y.E.S. Festival

The Department of Theatre and Dance at Northern Kentucky University has selected the three plays that will receive their world-premiere productions this April in the 17th Biennial YEAR END SERIES (Y.E.S.) FESTIVAL.

Opening the festival is IT'S A GRAND NIGHT FOR MURDER by Joe Starzyk, directed by Terry Powell. The premise is simple: An older man wants to kill his wife to be with his younger mistress. The complications arise when he tries to act on this impulse and ends up in the company of a bizarre hit man and a handful of other perplexing strangers. Romances add up as fast as the body count in the thrilling race to a decidedly twisted finale in which love conquers all.

THE DIVINE VISITOR reunites playwright David L. Williams with director Michael King. Previously, King directed Williams' SPAKE in the 2013 festival. In THE DIVINE VISITOR, a Restoration Comedy with a twist, the rake Whitestone, after faking his own death, finds his escape plans interrupted when he learns that every beautiful woman in town wept at his funeral. He chooses to stay and seduce the ladies by appearing as his own ghost, but the townsfolk believe him to be an angel, and soon all of the women are hoping to be divinely inspired by this messenger of God. When a visitor who is truly from beyond arrives, however, the town will never be the same.

Guest director Ed Cohen will lead the third production in the festival, ENCORE, ENCORE by Colin Speers Crowley. Speers' play is a bittersweet tragicomedy about the legendary wit and caustic critic, Dorothy Parker. ENCORE, ENCOREtraces Parker's turbulent marriage and the pain it caused through to the meteoric rise of her career as a drama critic. Her fight comes at a price, positioning Dorothy to live in public denial of her painful personal life and stapling her inexorably to a witty, unabashed public persona that is not allowed the luxury of emotion. The play paints a deeply vulnerable portrait of a woman forced to live her life in the spotlight.

WHAT | THE 17th BIENNIAL Y.E.S. FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS

WHO | Northern Kentucky University | Department of Theatre and Dance

WHEN | April 16 - 26, 2015

WHERE | NKU | Corbett and Stauss Theatres | Nunn Drive, Highland Heights, KY 41099

Ticket prices

General Admission: $14 | Senior (60+): $11 | Student (with a valid ID): $8

For tickets, call the NKU Fine Arts Box Office at 859.572.5464 or visit theatre.nku.edu

IT'S A GRAND NIGHT FOR MURDER | Corbett Theatre

Thursday, 4/16 8pm

Saturday, 4/18 1pm

Monday, 4/20 8pm

Thursday, 4/23 8pm

Saturday, 4/25 8pm

THE DIVINE VISITOR | Robert and Rosemary Stauss Theatre

Friday, 4/17 8pm

Saturday 4/18 4pm

Sunday, 4/19 4pm

Tuesday, 4/21 8pm

Thursday, 4/23 8pm

Friday, 4/24 8pm

Saturday, 4/25 4pm

Sunday, 4/26 1pm

ENCORE, ENCORE | Corbett Theatre

Saturday, 4/18 8pm

Sunday, 4/19 8pm

Wednesday, 4/22 8pm

Friday, 4/24 8pm

Saturday, 4/25 1pm