North Adams, Mass. – The third show of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) Theatre department season is Caryl Churchill’s provocative comedy Cloud 9, directed by Associate Professor of Theatre Laura Standley. MCLA Theatre’s production of Cloud 9 will feature junior Jarret Garland and senior Kevin McGrath’s lighting and scenic designs, as well as sound and costume designs by Assistant Professors in Theatre Jeremy Winchester and Andrea Williams.
The play is a journey of self-discovery, and about self-acceptance. Standley says “The characters are asking themselves questions that can relate to people now: “Who are we, and how do we perform our identity? What is our authentic relationship with our self?” The MCLA audience is asked to think about one of the most powerful struggles of our everyday lives – the struggle to be who we really are to our family, our society, and ourselves.
Churchill’s play explores the ever-changing world of sexual politics as we follow a British family from colonial Africa to London in the 1970s. “Even back in the late 70s, Caryl Churchill was aware that gender was a social construct. In the play, she subverts gender through a series of unorthodox acts: cross-casting devices like purposeful cross-gender casting, cross-racial casting, and cross-generational casting. She’s using the machinery of the patriarchy against itself,” says Standley. Victorian repression clashes with liberal expression as the play shifts between these two worlds.
The department’s adaptation of Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill will be shown on March 8, 9, 12-14 at 8 p.m., and March 9 at 2 p.m. An Alumni reception will take place on March 9 after the 8 p.m. show. A talkback will be hosted after the 8 p.m. show on Wednesday, March 13. The critical response will take place on April 1 at 5 p.m. in the Church Street Center Social Hall. Performances of Cloud 9 will take place in Venable Theater on the MCLA campus.
For more information or to reserve tickets, please call the box office at (413)-662-5123 or visit https://mcla.ticketleap.com/cloud-9/