Media Contact: Teddy DeRosa, tderosa@fairfield.edu , 203-254-4000 ext. 2118

FAIRFIELD, CT (September 14, 2016) — The Academy Players of Fairfield University return to the stage to present four performances of All in the Timing: Five Short Comedies by David Ives at the Wien Experimental Theater at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts from Wednesday, Sept. 28 through Saturday, Oct. 1.

All showings are at 8 p.m. The amateur production, which is performed and directed by Fairfield University faculty and staff, is free for students and $20 for the public. Seating is limited, and tickets can be purchased or reserved by phone at 203-254-4010, 1-877-ARTS-396 (toll free) or online at www.quickcenter.com.

Featuring five diverse one-act comedies, “All in the Timing: Five Short Comedies by David Ives” offers audiences a witty, romantic and existentially minded evening of theater.

University students attending the production will have the chance to see their professors in a new light as they tackle a series of comedic roles, including two mayflies on date with only 24-hours to live (“Time Flies”) and a man who decides one day that he would rather live his life as French artist Edgar Degas (“Degas C’est Moi”).  Other works by American playwright Ives are featured in the production include “Sure Thing,” “Foreplay, or the Art of the Fugue” and “The Goodness of Your Heart.”

“When I attended a production of David Ives’ The Goodness of Your Heart on Broadway a couple of years ago, I immediately noticed themes that overlapped with a class I team-teach with Professor of Sociology Dave Crawford on philosophy and economic anthropology,” explained Dr. Dennis Keenan, Philosophy Professor and member of The Academy Players. “That academic tie-in was the impetus to look for other plays by Ives that would help bring the theater into the classroom."

As was true for the amateur faculty troupe’s four previous productions, Fairfield students will attend the public performances as part of their studies, and will analyze the plays’ themes in their economics, English, modern languages and literatures, natural sciences, philosophy, religious studies, studio art and art history courses. Each performance is followed by faculty-led discussions that address various themes.

In addition to Dr. Keenan, this year’s cast includes Dr. Donald Gibson, Dean of the Dolan School of Business; Dr. Paul Lakeland, Aloysius P. Kelley S.J. Chair in Catholic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies; Dr. Shawn Rafalski, Associate Professor of Mathematics; Dr. Jerelyn Johnson, Associate Professor of Spanish and Chair of Modern Languages and Literature; and Dr. Steve Sawin, Professor of Mathematics.

The cast also features retired staff member Charlene Wallace and Yale University associates Andrea MacAdam and Lisa Sawin. Alistair Highet, Fairfield’s Senior Director of External Communications and Public Relations, will direct the production and alumnus Michael Wray ’12 will serve as sound engineer.

The production is sponsored by the University’s Humanities Institute, the Dolan School of Business, the Office of the Provost and the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, as well as several other University departments, including the departments of Communication, Economics, English, Mathematics, Modern Languages and Literatures, Philosophy, Sociology and Anthropology, and the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, the Center for Catholic Studies, the Honors Program and the Ignatian Residential College.

Pictured: Dr. Dennis Keenan, Professor of Psychology at Fairfield University, member of Fairfield Academy Players.

Posted On: 09-24-2016 03:09 PM

Volume: 49 Number: 27

Fairfield University is a Jesuit University, rooted in one of the world’s oldest intellectual and spiritual traditions. More than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from 36 states, 47 foreign countries, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are enrolled in the University’s five schools.  In the spirit of rigorous and sympathetic inquiry into all dimensions of human experience, Fairfield welcomes students from diverse backgrounds to share ideas and engage in open conversations. The University is located in the heart of a region where the future takes shape, on a stunning campus on the Connecticut coast just an hour from New York City.