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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, TN (Jan. 25, 2011) — Experience the rollicking adventures of Jim Hawkins and his encounters with pirates on the high seas as Milligan College presents “Treasure Island,” Feb. 10, 11 and 12, in the McGlothlin-Street Theatre of Milligan’s Gregory Center for the Liberal Arts.
Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 10, 11 and 12. There is also a 10:30 a.m. matinee on Saturday, Feb. 12. Advance ticket sales begin Feb. 1 in the Milligan College Bookstore. All seats are $5.
Sure to be a hit with children and families, audiences will be delighted to vicariously experience the non-stop action and to meet colorful characters like Blind Pew, Billy Bones, Ben Gunn and Long John Silver.
“Treasure Island” is a dramatization of the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and adapted for the stage by Aurand Harris. The play is produced and directed by Richard Major, professor of theater at Milligan, with scenic and lighting design by Pamela Adolphi, Milligan’s technical director and scenic and lighting designer for theater. It’s produced by special arrangement with Anchorage Press Plays Inc. of Louisville, Ky.
“The scenery and lighting Pamela Adolphi has created adds just the right touch to transport the audience to the high seas and to Treasure Island, where the action finally culminates in a full-stage fight pitting good against evil,” Major said. “Atlanta-based fight director David Sterritt has created a wonderful scene of clashing cutlasses and hand-to-hand fighting, which truly lives up to what one would expect from a band of pirates.”
The cast of 20 features Milligan faculty member and guest artist Dennis Elkins in the role of Long John Silver. Elkins, professor of the practice of theater and humanities, joined Milligan’s faculty in 2009 after teaching theater for six years at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).
Elkins recently performed the lead role in “The Other Shore,” staged at The Single Carrot Theatre in Baltimore, Md. “The Other Shore” was written by Gao Xingjian, the only Chinese writer to have won the Nobel Prize for literature. The play ran from Dec. 8, 2010, to Jan. 16, 2011.
Elkins is also known throughout the Northeast Tennessee theater community for his previous work with the Johnson City Theatre, Kingsport Theatre Guild, Johnson City Arts Council and the Morristown and Newport Theatre Guilds.
A member of the Actors’ Equity Association, the Southeastern Theatre Conference and the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, Elkins has presented papers on theater and vocal performance at academic conferences throughout the United States and has received several awards in his field, including the Presidential Fellowship from SCAD in 2004.
Other cast members include Milligan students Alex Henderson, of Ooltewah, Tenn., in the role of Jim Hawkins; Lacie Black, of Jonesborough, as Hawkins’s mother; Jes Sutton, of Elizabethton, as Billy Bones; Brennan Seth Tracy, of Oblong, Ill., as Blind Pew; Dan Ott, of Wooster, Ohio, as Morgan; Colin Blowers, of Elizabethton, as Dirk; Sam Beale, of Johnson City, as Black Dog; Daniel Banks, of Elizabethton, as the Squire; and Tim Laurio, of Jonesborough, as Ben Gunn. Milligan faculty member Richard Lura will play the role of the Doctor.
“An interesting note about this production is that I have cast several female pirates, and they certainly add a new twist to the retelling of this familiar story,” said Major. “The actors are having a marvelous time rehearsing this script and we all have had such fun creating a production that will be exciting for all who see it.”
Tickets will be available in the Milligan College Bookstore, open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by calling 423.461.8733.