Berkshire Country Day School Presents "The Love of Three Oranges"

LENOX, MA (02/12/2010)(readMedia)-- Berkshire Country Day School's Upper School Stage and Film Ensemble Presents "The Love of Three Oranges," based on a traditional Italian Commedia dell'arte story by Carlo Gozzi.

WHO:

Berkshire Country Day School's Upper School Stage and Film Ensemble

WHAT:

"The Love of Three Oranges," based on a traditional Italian Commedia dell'arte story by Carlo Gozzi.

WHERE:

Winthrop Theater, 45 West Street, Lenox, MA,

WHEN:

Thursday, February 25th through Saturday, February 27th

7:00 P.M.

Suggested Donation at the door

For more information, call 413-637-0755 or go to www.berkshirecountryday.org

"The Love of Three Oranges" is a comedy that has its roots in Commedia dell'arte, a theatrical form based in 16th century Italy. At that time, plays were beholden to rules and strictures that kept the style austere and cold. Perhaps as a reaction, Commedia dell'arte, often performed outdoors by traveling troupes of actors, was the exact opposite. It was raucous, colorful, and full of improvisation, subverting the "rules of theater.

Families of actors would travel around the countryside performing on makeshift stages, giving life to a host of stock characters. People grew familiar with the masks, costumes, and mannerisms of the characters and began to identify them as staples of Italian society. But the works themselves were always improvised around the stock storylines that developed and this is why we refer to "The Love of Three Oranges" as an old Italian "story" instead of an old Italian "play." They left us the characters and the plot, but no script. Many stage adaptations exist (including the famous Prokofiev opera) and since Gozzi used this story to essentially revive Commedia in the mid 1700s, it's hard not to feel right about performing it today to celebrate the impact of Commedia on comedy as we know it today. The BCD Stage and Film Ensemble has combined elements of many different script versions, added a lot of tinkering of their own, and wound up with something that fits the BCD family of actors.

ABOUT BERKSHIRE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL

Founded in 1946, BCD is an independent school serving students in preschool through ninth grade. Its mission is to inspire the individual promise of every student, that each may become an exemplary citizen of the world. More information about BCD can be found at www.berkshirecountryday.org.