May 11, 2006

'Time of Your Life' runs May 12-21

Pulitzer Prize winner’s play concludes Mainstage season

One of Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and playwright William Saroyan’s best known plays — a work that he penned in just six days — will conclude Northwestern’s 2005-06 Mainstage Theatre season.

Saroyan’s drama “The Time of Your Life” will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday, May 12; 8 p.m. Saturday, May 13; 2 p.m. Sunday, May 14; 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 17; 8 p.m. Thursday, May 18; 8 p.m. Friday, May 19; 8 p.m. Saturday, May 20; and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 21, at the Josephine Louis Theatre.

The three-act play takes place during a single day in 1939, just before the start of World War II. It is set in a seedy San Francisco waterfront bar through which numerous colorful and sometimes distressed characters move in their search for something more in life. The bar setting serves as an oasis in which everyone who walks through the door is welcome.

Directed by Northwestern theatre faculty member Bud Beyer, the play focuses on Joe, a rich young man who spends most of his time drinking, doing small favors for people and interacting with the bar’s flamboyant patrons as well as an interesting and engaging assortment of minor characters in life.

“What I like about this play is that Saroyan, who didn’t know any more than anyone else in the late 1930s, has elements that foreshadow the imminent Second World War,” said Beyer. “Although people knew who Hitler was at the time, no one could foresee the extent of the evil he would cause.”

As the play progresses, audiences realize that Saroyan’s characters will be affected by America’s involvement in World War II, by the industrial revolution following the Great Depression, and by social revolution.

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Tickets are $25 for the general public; $22 for seniors and faculty and staff; and $10 for students.

For more information or to order single or group tickets by phone, call (847) 491-7282.

Online ticket sales for Mainstage productions also are available through TicketWeb.com by going to the Theatre and Interpretation Center Web site at www.tic.northwestern.edu/tickets.html and clicking the TicketWeb icon.