Yene Bereket, Leslie Stamoolis and Mia Torres of Gonzaga University came into the KPBX studio this morning to talk about and perform a scene from The Revolutionists, Lauren Gunderson's 2017 play featuring four female figures of revolutionary France.
Gonzaga's theater department is presenting a new staged reading of The Revolutionists in a two-day run that begins tomorrow.
Stamoolis is the director of the Theatre Program at Gonzaga and is also directing this production. Torres is playing Olympe de Gouges, a real-life playwright of the period and the author of Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen. Bereket is playing the Haitian rebel Marianne Angelle, who is a composite of historical figures.
The play's other two characters are both drawn from real life: Charlotte Corday (played by Sidney Ashby), who assassinated the Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, and Marie Antoinette (played by Lily Franklin), the last Ancien Régime queen of France.
Stamoolis talked about why the play appears to have surged in popularity in recent years and some of the enduring topics it raises. Bereket and Torres performed a scene from the play that illustrated their characters as well as some of the wry and deliberate liberties The Revolutionists takes with the historical record.
Although this run is a staged reading and not a full production, Stamoolis explained why it was important to incorporate a lighting designer (student Ady Nelson), a sound designer (student Luke Motschenbacher) and a dramaturg (Laurie Arnold, director of Gonzaga's Native Studies program) for this show.
The Revolutionists opens tomorrow (Thursday, Feb. 29) and closes the following day (Friday, Mar. 1) at Gonzaga University’s Magnuson Theatre. More information is available on the Gonzaga University Theater and Dance page.
Tickets are available at this shortlink or by calling the box office on (509) 313-2787.