A new production from the Department of Performing Arts premiered on December 9 in the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts Theater Hall. “American Blues,” comprising three one-act plays by the eminent US playwright Tennessee Williams (1911–1983), is being staged (in Turkish) as a graduation project by senior students under the direction of Asst. Prof. Jason Hale, head of the department. Remaining performances will take place on December 20, 23 and 30,all at 8 p.m.
The three plays, “Hello from Bertha” (1946), “Moony’s Kid Don’t Cry” (1941) and “Green Eyes (1970),” all deal with forms of loneliness or difficult relationships.
Mr. Hale highlighted the significance of the playwright’s work, saying, “Tennessee Williams, with his poetic theater of pure psychological insight, marked a breakthrough in storytelling for contemporary American theater. Moreover, our department has a special relationship with this writer.” Mr. Hale noted that in 2016 and 2019, John Uecker, a director, acting instructor and Williams’s last assistant, gave master classes in American method acting in the department. In addition, David Kaplan, the Provincetown Tennessee Williams International Theater Festival’s 2017 director and curator, held a workshop at Bilkent on Shakespeare’s play “Antony and Cleopatra,” after which two faculty members and two students from the department went to the US to reprise their roles at the festival.
Cast members for “American Blues” are Doğukan Güllüpınar, Doğuş Bilgin, Eyşan Dönmez, Seda Soysal, Yağmur Elif Seber, Bora Uzunboy and Nevin Ece Akkaya. The assistant director is Haydar Özkan; lighting design is by Yılmaz Ertekin, set design by Özlem Gezgin, costume design by Gökçe Şener and poster design by Ayça Eren. Translators were Ege Tolga and Melisa Berberoğlu.
Tickets for the play can be obtained from bilet.bilkent.edu.tr