"World War II in Revue" at Penn State Behrend's Studio Theatre November 4, 2010

“World War II in Revue,” a recreation of songs and one-act plays originally produced by the political-activist performance group Stage For Action, will be the fall Studio Theatre performance at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.

In 1943, a group of prominent stage and radio artists formed Stage For Action to dramatize contemporary social issues and, as a New York Times theatre reporter Sam Zolotow wrote in 1944, “bring the message of the dangers of native Fascism in America to audiences outside the Broadway area.” Established and rising playwrights and performers, including Arthur Miller, Norman Corwin, Sam Wanamaker, Sandra Michaels and Will Geer, soon signed on to the group. Eventually Stage For Action’s ambition of supporting the war effort evolved into tackling post-war issues of atomic warfare, racism, anti-Semitism, and the witch-hunts of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Dr. Chrystyna Dail, coordinator of the college’s theatre program and director/choreographer of “World War II in Revue,” has recast Stage For Action works as a three-act play set against the backdrop of a labor union meeting held in the summer of 1945, just prior to V-J Day. The first act, “That They May Win,” is a play written by a young Arthur Miller; the second is a series of songs written by folk artist Pete Seeger and fellow members of a Progressive songwriters’ collective called People’s Songs. The final portion of the performance is a one-act play, “Joseph McGinnical, Cynical Pinnacle: Opus II,” by Lester Pine and Anita Short.

“The performance is quite political in nature, discussing racism, Communism, voting rights, and other pressing post-war domestic social issues, but it’s also a lot of fun and has a good deal of humor in it, so it resonates on multiple levels,” Dail says. “My own goal was to create a show that challenges audience members to acknowledge that our anesthetized collective memory of a rosy home front during World War II is not accurate.”
“World War II in Revue” has an all-student cast of Preston Barrett, Michael Dell’Aquila, Sarah Harris, Jessica Hartman, Antonette Igbenoba, Desstia Jones, Evan Koser, Cassie Kosmal, Earl Kunsman, Alice Lyons, Tashima Mitchell, Jose Picado, Ed Pizzella, Katie Pugliese, Ryan Richards, Sonia Rosales, Brittany Saunders, Kylie Swanson and Carissa Zozos.

Performances dates are 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 4, Friday, Nov. 5, Saturday, Nov. 6, Thursday, Nov. 11, Friday, Nov. 12 and Saturday, Nov.13. There will be one matinee, at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 7.

Student and general admission tickets cost $5 and can be purchased at the Reed Union Building desk or by calling 814-898-6242. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door for each performance.