Luther College student Emma Hartmann to perform in 'Cabaret'

DECORAH, IA (11/19/2013)(readMedia)-- Emma Hartmann of Dubuque, Iowa, will perform as Rosie in the Luther College Department for Visual and Performing Arts production of "Cabaret," an award winning 1966 musical based on the play "I Am a Camera."

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15; 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21; 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22; and 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23.

Hartmann, the daughter of John and Julie Hartmann of Dubuque, is majoring in music at Luther. She is a 2011 graduate of Wahlert Catholic High School.

Tickets for the performance are $15 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under; available at the Luther Ticket Office, telephone (563) 387-1357 or boxoffice@luther.edu, open Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9-10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; Tuesday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and Thursdays 9 a.m.-7 p.m.

The Luther performance of "Cabaret" will be directed by Jane Hawley, professor of dance, and Bobby Vrtis, assistant professor of theatre.

Upon its premiere, "Cabaret" was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, winning seven of them, including "Best Musical," "Best Original Score" and "Best Choreography."

"Cabaret" takes place in the 1930's in Berlin as the Nazi party is growing stronger. The plot follows the arrival of a young, American writer named Cliff Bradshaw, who has come to Germany to work on his novel. When visiting the Kit Kat Klub, a seedy cabaret, he meets an English performer, Sally Bowles and the two soon find themselves living together.

Through misadventures in love, work and rapidly changing political landscape of Germany, Cliff and Sally find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy in their hands and watching the struggles of their German landlady and her Jewish suitor at the beginning of the Nazi era.

The story is narrated in part by the omniscient Emcee of the Kit Kat Klub, whose flamboyant and increasingly dark musical numbers serve as a metaphor for the madness and disarray descending upon the world around them.

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