Caine School of the Arts Begins Theatre Season with 'Doubt: A Parable'

The theater season opens at Utah State University with the production “Doubt: A Parable.” Presented by the Department of Theatre through the Caine School of the Arts, Doubt opens Thursday, Sept. 25, and performances continue Sept. 26-27 and Oct. 2-4. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. in the Caine Lyric Theatre (28 W. Center, Logan).

Tickets are $9 and $13 and are available by calling the Caine School of the Arts Box Office at 435-797-8022 or visiting the box office online.

 

An informal panel, consisting of the cast, director and invited faculty from USU, will discuss issues raised with Doubt following the opening night performance. Audience members are encouraged to stay for the discussion.

 

This play resonates with issues torn from today’s headlines, said Colin Johnson, department head of theatre arts. Johnson also said Doubt is the most produced play in the United States at this time.

 

Set in a Catholic school in the early 1960s, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt explores problems surrounding the larger society, reflected via a situation at a traditional Catholic school. The school is dealing with the changed nature of Catholicism. The school’s principal, Sister Aloysius, portrayed by Felicia Stehmeier, finds fault with the young priest Father Flynn, played by Jeff Denison. Sister Aloysius distrusts Father Flynn’s open, informal behavior with a young male student and sparks shocking allegations.

 

Doubt is deceptively amusing and gentle, but as the New York Times said, “it sends off emotional depth charges that go far deeper.”

 

“Doubt frames our opinions by which we set our own moral compass,” said Lynda Linford, director and associate professor in theatre arts. “It isn’t about the Catholic Church. That’s just the setting. Doubt showcases issues that are far reaching in today’s society.”

 

Doubt has won numerous awards, including the 2005 Tony Award, a 2005 Drama Desk award and the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Shanley’s other plays include Defiance, Four Dogs and a Bone, Dirty Story, Cellini, Psychopathia Sexualis and Savage in Limbo. He also wrote the screenplays for Congo, Live from Baghdad, The January Man, Joe Versus the Volcano, which he also directed, and Moonstruck, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

 

Called “inspired” by The New York Times, Doubt opened off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2004 and transferred to Broadway in 2005. When it closed in 2006 after playing 525 performances, Doubt was the fifth longest-running play on Broadway in 10 years.

 

Contact: Lynda Linford (435) 797-3050, lynda.linford@usu.edu
Writer: Sally Okelberry (435) 797-1500; sally.okelberry@usu.edu