Drury’s theatre department is at it again, but this time they decided to break out of their black box studio. For the final shows of the 2018-19 season, they are bringing the performances outside, and to accompany them, an entire ensemble of medieval festivities.

The Farces

The department will be producing two shows as part of the Medieval Farces. They are “Pierre Patelin” and “The Cave of Salamanca.” Both are student directed, being overseen by Haddy Kreie. Alex Jones is directing “Pierre Patelin,” and Stephanie Schumacher is directing “Cave of Salamanca.” These two had “distinguished themselves in terms of directing,” explained Dr. Mick Sokol, head of the Theatre Department.

Sokol is excited to see these shows do well. He had adapted “Pierre Patelin” over his sabbatical along with several other plays. In addition, these plays are both comedic farces. “Pierre Patelin” is about a tricky lawyer, who cheats everyone while everyone is cheating each other. “Cave of Salamanca” has cheating in it too, but of a different kind.

“A couple of women want to have their boyfriends over, but the husband comes home, sort of thing,” Sokol described.

The performances will run from Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Sunderland Studio Theatre April 10 through April 13.

“They are meant to be crowd-pleasers,” Sokol stated. “They have to be for performing them outdoors.”

The Festival

It was Dr. Sokol’s idea to perform outside.

“There were no theatres in the medieval period, no actual buildings… I want the students to get a feel of what it would have been like back in the day,” said Sokol.

However, in order to get the full experience of a medieval play, Sokol developed the idea.

“As long as we’re doing the plays outside, we might want to bring in some other activities… and it’s kind of grown,” he explained.

While the festival will only be a few hours long, it promises to be quite the extravaganza. Students can expect the festival to include a number of food trucks, which will be set up around the circle outside the Findlay Student Center, and 19 vendors, who will sell arts and crafts during the festivals.

There will also be things to watch besides the plays themselves. There will performances by medieval combat demonstrators, a group of “wandering minstrels,” who many students may recognize as the DUkes, and the director of “Cave of Salamanca,” who has been teaching herself how to juggle.

The festival will be Saturday, April 13 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and the plays will begin at 2 p.m. For now, the medieval festival is a one-time only thing, so don’t miss it!

Article written by Afton Jagels.