Despite restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mainstage Season Series is set to return to William Woods University (WWU) for another year, once again featuring four highly entertaining productions during the academic year staged by WWU’s Theatre Department.
The year’s first production, “An Enemy of the People,” provides a tale that is especially relevant to our current times, with an overall theme centering around the question of: what is more important – public health, or economic stability? The opening performance of “An Enemy of the People” will take place Thursday, October 1, at Cutlip Auditorium on the WWU campus.
Due to health guidelines associated with COVID-19, attendance to the production is limited to WWU students, faculty and staff.
“I have never been happier to be able to say ‘the show must go on’ as I am this year,” said Joe Potter, Artistic Director of the William Woods University Theatre Department. “We are thrilled that our talented and committed students will still get to take part in our theatre productions this year despite the challenges we face due to the virus. But we will sorely miss having members of the greater Fulton community join us this year, and look forward to a time when they can do so again.”
“An Enemy of the People,” written by Henrik Ibsen and adapted by Tom Isbel, takes place in a town where the top industry is a spa. When the spa becomes contaminated, the people of the town are forced to choose between cleaning it up and risk losing jobs, or keeping the area’s top economic driver open while continuing to make people sick. When the spa’s medical officer goes toe-to-toe with the town’s mayor, he is declared to be an enemy of the people.
Performances for An Enemy of the People will take place on October 1-3 at 7:30 p.m., with a matinee showing on Saturday, October 3 at 2 p.m., all in Cutlip Auditorium. Other Mainstage productions set for the coming year at William Woods include “Goldilocks On Trial” (November 19-21); “The Night Witches” (February 25-27, 2021), and “The Bard of Avon (April 15-17, 2021).
