Company prepares Tartuffe for
Nov. 1 opening

Men in tights and women in corsets – sounds like a play.

Tartuffe, a Moliere farce, opens Wednesday, Nov. 1, and runs through Saturday, Nov. 4, starting at 8 p.m. each night.

The faculty and the cast of 13 students involved in producing the restoration comedy say it's a lot of fun, as well as a lot of hard work.

The hard work began with Alice Butler, who's been head of the theater department at North Lake College for 29 years. She was responsible for choosing the play, as well as directing it.

Before choosing Tartuffe, Butler read 27 plays in two and a half weeks, selecting three plays she thought NLC students would enjoy. The fi nal decision was made at a production meeting after auditions were held, based on the students who tried out.

Butler, John Moseley, scene designer and teacher at NLC for 28 years; Mike McKee, teacher in the theater department for 11 years, and Deborah Ragsdale, assistant director, who just received her master's degree in theater education from New York University, are the faculty members guiding the production. They are planning what direction to take with scenery, lights and costumes.

The hard-working students who make up the cast are not only actors in the show, but each cast member is involved with every aspect of the production.

McKee is the technical director and lighting designer for Tartuffe. He explained that this way of doing things is called an “ensemble approach.”

“Everybody takes an interest in the show, everybody gets involved… they [the cast] all take ownership of it,” he said. Students started working on the set of Tartuffe the second week of September.

They took a minimal approach to the scenery for the five-act play.

The students get hands-on training. They work with tools, learn sound and light boards, and even practice stage managing.

Butler wants the cast to have a “broad experience… for student growth.”

The cast also helps with costumes. Tartuffe is set in the mid- 1700s in an aristocratic society.

The costumes consists of brocades and lace, ruffles and ribbons, bows and beads, corsets for the women, hosiery for the men and wigs for almost everyone in the cast.

Moliere calls for “rouge spots and beauty marks” in one line of the play, which is not to be ignored.

In fact, this over-the-top comedy calls for a bit of excess in all the costumes.

Because students have to not only act, but also give up most of their weeknights to build the sets and sew the costumes, they become more rounded in the theatrical sense, and maybe a little bit more appreciative.

Butler sums it up in one sentence: “There are no stars here.” Why would students want to see this play? Butler explains that “students like the play because it still applies to people… it's a little sexy… it's about intrigue.” Men in tights… that's all she had to say.