LAB!, Company Carolina and Pauper Players expand breadth despite space issues

Company Carolina and Pauper Players have both faced performance space issues this year.

But that hasn’t stopped both groups and LAB! Theatre from expanding the breadth of their performances.

In April, Company Carolina staged its version of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” outdoors on Polk Place.

The show was the first of what the group said it hopes will be an annual “Shakespeare on the Quad” series, alleviating the need for indoor production space for some of its performances.

In stark contrast to the Shakespearian production, Company Carolina opened its last show of the fall season — “Filthy Talk for Troubled Times” — on Nov. 28th.

“Filthy Talk” featured two characters in discourse about various controversial subjects, including sex.

“The main thing that struck me from the script is the honesty,” said Daniel Doyle, director of the show. “We don’t bring these stories up, but we’ve all had them.

Also pushing genre boundaries this year was LAB! Theatre’s first bilingual production, entitled “La Casa de Bernarda Alba.”

The play was a conflation of the original 1936 Spanish script and the contemporary English translation by Emily Mann.

Melissa Parker, director for the play, said she tried to use recognizable Spanish to avoid confusing audience members.

In April, LAB!’s performance of “The Bacchae,” a Greek tragedy by Euripides, was adapted for a much more modern audience.

The play featured techno music woven into scenes, which Paige Kinsley, an actress in the show, equated with Dionysian thought.

“Techno is the modern version of the Dionysian thought — the unordered, the unattained way of life that people know,” Kinsley said.

Pauper Players, a musical theater group, has also been putting new spins on old classics this year.

An April performance of an original version of “Grease” drew audiences to The ArtsCenter in Carrboro. The show was directed by then-senior Michael McWaters, who said he wanted to put his own personal touches on the production.

Pauper Players also performed a rendition of “The Rocky Horror Show” in November, and the show didn’t lack shock value for its audience.

Also held at the ArtsCenter, “Rocky Horror” sold out multiple performances.

“A lot of people coming to the show have seen the movie so many times that they can quote every line and might yell them out,” said Amberly Nardo, who played Janet in the production.

“I know there’s a lot to live up to.”

And despite the past hindrance of finding performance spaces, UNC student theater has lived up to audiences’ expectations this year.

Contact the desk editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.