MC plans multiple theatrical productions for 2024-25 season
By Elijah Mangum
Aven Hall is home to both the Mississippi College Department of Music and the Department of Communication.
Multiple theatrical productions are in the works from Mississippi College, from both Lyric Stage, a program of the MC Department of Music, and the MC Department of Communication.
Lyric Stage will be debuting this year’s annual opera on November 1 and 2 at 7 p.m. in the Jean Pittman Williams Recital Hall in Aven Hall. The performance will include two one-act operas by Mozart, each divided by an intermission. The first will be Der Schauspieldirektor, a story of two divas competing for control of an opera company. The other, “Bastien und Bastienne,” was Mozart’s first opera, written when he was only twelve years old. The songs will be performed in German, but the dialogue will be in English.
The opera will be directed and produced by Department of Music faculty member Sarah Pigott.
“It should be a really fun night,” Pigott said.
Lyric Stage is making an important change to ticket sales this year.
“We’re not doing pre-sale tickets,” Pigott said. “Normally, you could go online to buy tickets before the day of the show. This year we’re just selling tickets at the door. Don’t stress out if you can’t find the link!”
Lyric Stage will also have a musical next semester, Guys and Dolls, set to run from February 27 through March 2. According to the musical’s director Jamie Ertle, more details will be announced very soon through Lyric Stage’s social media pages.
“Auditions will be this semester, and the original story is based on something written in the 1930s,” Ertle said.
In the Department of Communication, Clinton High School Theater Director Sarah Hankins now serves as an adjunct professor. She teaches multiple online and hybrid theater classes following Dr. Phyllis Seawright’s retirement last semester.
Hankins is set to direct Sherlock Holmes and the First Baker Street Irregular this fall. The production will be a joint effort between Clinton High School, Mississippi College and Clinton’s local community theater, the Brick Street Players. Performances will be November 21-24 at the Gore Arts Complex.
For information about the Sherlock Holmes production, visit the Brick Street Players’ Facebook and Instagram pages. For information on Lyric Stage’s fall opera and spring musical, visit www.music.mc.edu or the Lyric Stage Instagram page.
