Tech Theatre Presents Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale”

Winters TaleThe Tech Theatre Company presents “The Winter’s Tale” by William Shakespeare this week.

One of the Bard’s later plays, it is a comedy which also provides intense psychological drama. “The Winter’s Tale” follows the story of two kings, childhood friends Leontes and Polixenes. The plot involves jealous rages, seeming betrayals, accusations of infidelity and Leonte’s refusal to accept his wife’s child as his own. Eventually, love reunites the characters in the end and all are redeemed.

“The Winter’s Tale” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, with a 2 p.m. Sunday Matinee at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $6 for youth and Michigan Tech Students are free with the Experience Tech Fee.

From Tech Today, by VPA.

“The Winter’s Tale” Opens Tonight

The curtain will go up tonight for the Tech Theatre Company’s latest production, “The Winter’s Tale,” in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. tonigh (April 7, 2016)t, tomorrow (April 8) and Saturday (April 9) with a 2 p.m. Sunday (April 10) matinee.

Published in 1623, “The Winter’s Tale” is one of Shakespeare’s later plays. Considered a comedy, it is also sometimes labeled one of the Bard’s late romances.

Providing both intense psychological drama and comedy, “The Winter’s Tale” leaves audiences with a romantic and happy ending as it follows a story of two kings who are childhood friends. There are violent storms, an insistence to abandon a child and even 16 years pass before love reunites the characters in the end and all are redeemed.

According to Director Roger Held, “The dreary English days twixt November and March are invariably cold, dark and damp. While snowfall is light, the east wind blows very cold and the wind from the south and west brings chilly rain. During the English Renaissance, the lack of central heating encouraged early bed times under multiple covers. Not-sleepy-children may have prompted the development of traditional Winter Tales … stories most often set in the long ago and far away and were cautionary tales, warning against bad behavior. The romantic writers and the Grimm brothers are descendants of this folk tradition that Shakespeare borrowed for [this] play.”

General admission is $15, youth tickets (17 and under) are $6, and Michigan Tech student tickets are free with the Experience Tech fee.

To purchase tickets, call the Central Ticket Office 7-2073, go online or visit Ticketing Operations at the SDC.

Tickets will also be available at the Rozsa box office two hours before each show.

From Tech Today, by Bethany Jones.