The Secret Rapture to Play at the CBT
 
­David Hare’s drama, The Secret Rapture, will run October 16-26, 2008 in the Lab Theatre of the Clarence Brown Theatre.

Orginally written in 1988, The Secret Rapture is Hare’s meditation on England near the end of Margaret Thatcher¹s decade in office. However, the drama is less about politics than the relationships between the characters.

When the family patriarch dies, daughter Isobel is pressured by her sister to hire their alcoholic stepmother to work in her design firm.  As the firm and family disintegrate, the play addresses questions of integrity, ties to family, and the pursuit of wealth.

Director Calvin MacLean is in his third year as Department Head at the University of Tennessee and Artistic Director of the Clarence Brown Theatre Company. He was a Professor of Theatre and Head of Directing at Illinois State University for fifteen years. He also was Artistic Director of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, a professional, summer Shakespeare theatre associated with Illinois State. Under his leadership, the Festival built and opened a two million dollar outdoor theatre and regularly brought in professional actors and directors.

Also an ensemble member of Chicago’s Famous Door Theatre Company, his productions have earned numerous awards in Chicago, including: Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West, Anthony Clarvoe’s The Living, Manfred Karge’s Conquest of the South Pole, John Godber’s Salt of the Earth, and most notably, Joshua Sobol’s Ghetto, a production that ran for seven months. Critically acclaimed as one of the best productions in Chicago for 1999, Ghetto was nominated for six Joseph Jefferson Awards and honored with four including Outstanding Production of a Play and Outstanding Direction of a Play. Other professional credits include Chicago’s Tony Award winning Victory Gardens Theatre, the Connecticut Repertory Theatre, the Asolo Theatre in Florida, Indiana Repertory, and the University of Illinois.

In 2002, he was named by the Chicago Tribune as one of the “ten most promising” theatre artists in Chicago. He and his wife Rebecca have two children, Sam and Rachael.

The cast for the production includes: Cycerli Ash (Marion French); Matthew Bassett (Irwin Posner); Katie Alley (Katherine Glass); Amy Mathews (Rhonda Milne); Jessica Ripton (Isobel Glass); and, Jonathan Visser.

Designing the production are Amy Xiques for the costumes, Joe Court for the sound, Mary Pingree for the scenery and Jenn Trippe for the lights.  Derek Waffel will serve as stage manager. Lexus of Knoxville is the main sponsor for this production.

The Secret Rapture runs from October 16-26, 2008 beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Ticket prices are $10 for adults, $10 for regular students, and $3 for UT students. For tickets, please call the CBT Box Office at 865-974-5161 or Tickets Unlimited at 865-656-4444.