Buena Vista University Theatre to Present "Picnic"

October 29, 2014

Buena Vista University Theatre is presenting the play "Picnic" by William Inge for its fall theatre performance, taking place Nov. 5, 6, 7 and 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Anderson Auditorium on the BVU campus.

Tickets for the play can be reserved online at www.bvu.edu/tickets or by calling the BVU Theatre Hotline at 712.749.2211. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students and senior citizens and may be picked up at the door on the evening of the performance you plan to attend.

BVU's production of "Picnic" will be directed by Dr. Michael Whitlatch, professor of theatre, with technical direction by David Grant Walker, assistant professor of theatre, and costume coordination by Dr. Bethany Larson, associate professor of theatre.

"Picnic" is set on Labor Day weekend in the joint backyards of two middle-aged widows in a small Kansas town. Flo Owens lives in one house with her two daughters, Madge and Millie, and a boarder who is a spinster schoolteacher. Helen Potts lives in the other house with her invalid mother. One day, Hal Carter enters the scene, and changes the women's lives. A winner of the 1953 Pulitzer Prize and the New York Critic's Circle Award, "Picnic" remains a moving piece that shows how longings and desires can shape a person's life and is a realistic examination of unfilled dreams and the conditions faced by many women in the 1950s.

"‘Picnic' has a realistic surface, but underneath this surface, we see the longings and fears of the women in the play. The play manages to convey a sense of the terrible loneliness and frustrations of ordinary life," said Dr. Whitlatch. "The characters in ‘Picnic' long to escape, and the call of the passing trains suggest a future that is slowly slipping away from the inhabitants of this small town in the middle of Kansas. The author shows a great deal of respect for the daily living and lives the inhabitants of his plays have carved out for themselves."

Alpha Psi Omega, BVU's theatre honorary society, is sponsoring "Time to Picnic," a fundraising raffle for three themed picnic baskets to be drawn on the last night of the play, Nov. 8. The picnic baskets range in value from $25 to $40 and include merchandise donated from local businesses around Storm Lake, as well as treats made by BVU faculty and staff members. Raffle tickets are $1 each and can be purchased by patrons at the box office located at the Information Desk in the Harold Walter Siebens Forum on weekdays Oct. 29 – Nov. 7 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and on each night of the performance from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Funds from the raffle will be used for educational enrichment opportunities for theatre students at BVU.

The cast of "Picnic" is made up of BVU students, including:

• Helen Potts – Makenzie Mauntler, a junior graphic design and visual communications major from Glenville, Minn.
• Hal Carter – Austin Delp, a junior English secondary education and theatre major from Alta
• Millie Owens – Claire Boston, a sophomore theatre and digital media major from Cedar Rapids
• Bomber – Jacob Amhof, a junior music and music production and technology major from Fort Dodge
• Madge Owens – Katalina Ford, a sophomore digital media and art major from Alta
• Flo Owens – Nicole Boysen, a junior English major from Danbury
• Rosemary Sydney – Michelle Eccher, a junior elementary education major from Fonda
• Alan Seymour – Kyle Wiebers, a freshman psychology and criminology and criminal justice major from Cedar Falls
• Irma Kronkite – Emily Johnson, a sophomore digital media major from Storm Lake
• Christine Schoenwalder – Sarah Mackey, a freshman mathematics major from Center Point
• Howard Bevans – Erik Wolf, a sophomore digital media major from Central City