Department of Theatre and Dance's New Season Opens With The Hungry Woman

Quick Facts

"The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea" by Cherrie L. Moraga opens Wednesday, Oct. 3 at 8 p.m. in Johnson Theatre. Additional show times are Oct. 4-Oct 6 at 8 p.m. with a matinee Sunday, Oct. 7 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $8 with a Winthrop ID or $15 to the general public.

It is an approved cultural and GLI event.

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Cecily Bigham as Medea

ROCK HILL, S.C. - The 2012-13 season of Winthrop University's Department of Theatre and Dance begins this week with a fierce, political production, based on the Greek play Medea.

"The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea" by Cherrie L. Moraga opens Wednesday, Oct. 3 at 8 p.m. in Johnson Theatre. Tickets are $8 with a Winthrop ID or $15 to the general public.

Set in the "near future of an imagined past," the drama delves into the concepts of cultural and sexual identities in a post-apocalyptic United States. Medea, played by theatre major Cecily Bigham, is in the psychiatric ward of a prison and watches the events on stage that led to her imprisonment. Medea is a woman gone crazy between her desire for another woman and for the indigenous nation that is denied to her.

Through Global Learning Initiative grants, Erica Ocegueda, an expert in Aztecan dance, visited the student actors. Together, they spent an entire weekend diving into the dance and culture, led by Ocegueda, as well as the political and social discourse the play sparks. Several of the play's scenes display this thoughtful work.

Director Laura Dougherty said the actors, including theatre majors Amber Westbrook as Luna, Mary Shockley as Mama Sal, Dennis DeJesus as Chac-Mool and Sean Rodriguez as Jasón. Theatre majors Ann Marie Calabro, Riley Ketcham, Emily Cupit and dance major Brittany Johnson play El Coro. All of the actors have committed to the play with "passion, bravery and fire in their bellies."

"The performances in this play are passionate and charged," Dougherty said. "We hope to spark conversation, thought, debate, engagement. I set a pretty sizable charge before the actors and designers, and they have devoured it and made it their own. They are invested and engaged with the work. I am full of gratitude for everyone involved."

In addition to opening night, show times are also Oct. 4-Oct 6 at 8 p.m. with a matinee Sunday, Oct. 7 at 2 p.m. It is an approved cultural and GLI event.

Tickets may be purchased online or at the box office between 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday. Call the box office at 803/323-4014 or e-mail at boxoffice@winthrop.edu.

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