Director Richard Schechner brings Waiting for Godot to Cornell stage

In this rehearsal photo, Hans Vermy '03 plays Estragon, one of two tramps who search for the meaning of human existence in Samuel Beckett's classic Waiting for Godot. Directed by well-known theater scholar and Cornell alumnus Richard Schechner, Waiting for Godot is playing at the Cornell Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts Jan. 30-Feb. 3. Additional seating has been released, and tickets are now available for all performances. Call 254-ARTS. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

"Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful!" In these words from the first act of his play Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett reveals the context of his most well-known and relevant work. Waiting for Godot questions the meaning of human existence and explores the ways we invent to pass time before we die. The Cornell Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts will stage this contemporary classic Jan. 30-Feb. 3.

Waiting for Godot opens Wednesday, Jan. 30, at 8 p.m. Evening performances continue Jan. 31 and Feb. 1-3. One matinee will be offered Feb. 3 at 2 p.m. Tickets in advance are $7 for students and seniors and $9 for the public. Tickets at the door will be $8 and $10. A discussion for the audience and members of the cast and crew is scheduled following the Jan. 31 performance.

For tickets and information, call or visit the box office in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, 430 College Ave., 12:30-5:30 p.m., weekdays; 254-ARTS.

Considered innovative and brilliant when first staged in 1953, Waiting for Godot was the Theater of the Absurd's first theatrical success. The play follows Vladimir and Estragon, who wait daily for the arrival of a mysterious Mr. Godot and contemplate the meaninglessness of their existence. As they wait they devise ways to pass the time. They encounter others passing by, they laugh, eat, cry, pee -- and sometimes do nothing at all. Waiting for Godot, born in post-World War II France, has been performed all over the world.

And who better to direct this play than a director who has directed at theaters and universities around the world. Overseeing this unique production is Cornell Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large Richard Schechner '56. Schechner is the artistic director of East Coast Artists in Manhattan and a professor of performance studies at New York University. He is the author of 10 books, including Performance Theory, Between Theater and Anthropology and Environmental Theater. Schechner is renowned for shifting the terrain of thinking in theater scholarship from traditional theater approaches to the stage to a total environmental approach.

Working with this esteemed director are eight talented cast members: equity actor John Payne as Vladimir, students Hans Vermy (Estragon), Amin Kirdar (Pozzo) and Tim Flood, Kevaughn Harvey and Craig Divino (all as Lucky). Two area children, Sean Karasin and Elias Spector-Zabusky, are cast as boys.

Schechner has innovative ideas for the environment of this play. Helping to make his vision a reality are scenic designer Kent Goetz, costume designer Richard MacPike, lighting designer Ed Intemann and sound designer Warren Cross.