What would you do if you could do anything? What would you give to have your every desire satisfied? And most importantly -- what would it take to make you truly happy?
As the first great artistic treatment of the Faust story, Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus -- which comes to the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts' Black Box Series this weekend -- confronts these questions directly, with results that are sometimes hilarious and sometimes shattering. It is the classic tale of a man who sells his soul for 24 years of heightened existence on Earth and finds that he gets both more and less than he bargained for. A brilliant mix of comic and tragic elements, Marlowe's vision encompasses the entire life of his hero, along with a cast of characters that includes popes and demons, emperors and clowns, the most beautiful woman in history and a devil who mourns the loss of heaven.
Performances of Doctor Faustus begin this Friday, March 7, at 4:30 p.m. Performances continue Saturday, March 8, and Sunday, March 9, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the Schwartz Center box office during the week from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m., or at the door one hour before performance. Call 254-ARTS for tickets. Tickets are $2 in advance and $3 at the door.
The play features the talents of Cornell students Lauren Cahoon '05, Kristen Frazier '05, Kevaughn Harvey '04, Tony Hogrebe '04, Matt Keagle '05, David Mack '05, Amy Schleunes '03 and Cory Sinclair '04, The play is directed by graduate student Stephen Ponton.
The Black Box Series offers students valuable opportunities to assume commanding directing, design and acting roles in small-budget projects. It is made possible through the generosity of Cornell alumni Leah Shampanier Gould and Harold Gould.