MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury College Department of Theatre and Dance will present Aaron Posner’s “Stupid F***ing Bird” April 7-9 at the Seeler Studio Theatre in the Mahaney Center for the Arts on campus. This contemporary play deals in passion and is filled with hyperbole. Professor Cheryl Faraone will direct a cast of six Middlebury students and one alumna.
The play is “The Seagull” on steroids: Con hates his mother. Nina, the girl he adores, lusts after his mother’s lover, and he after her. Mix equal parts art, ambition, sex and alcohol, and what you get is a recipe for madness.
Reviewing the 2014 Wooly Mammoth production in Washington, D.C., The New York Times wrote, “For all its rowdiness, Mr. Posner’s bitingly funny, bruisingly sad ‘sort of’ adaptation of ‘The Seagull’ comes closer than many productions of the original to capturing the full complexity of feeling in the play. Mr. Posner turns a classic often treated with reverence into a mirror that shows in crisp detail what is new about unhappiness today (we obsess about it a lot more), and what is timeless (love screws you up, life’s a bitch, and then, well, you know).”
Aaron Posner is a Helen Hayes and Barrymore Award-winning director and playwright.
The cast of “Stupid F***ing Bird” includes Kevin Commins ’76, Shannon Gibbs ’18, Kean Haunt ’17, Lana Meyer ’17, Jackson Prince ’17, Greg Swartz ’17.5 and Katie Weatherseed ’16.5. The stage manager is Maxwell Leslie ’18 and the assistant stage managers are Lisa Mordkovich ’19 and Madeline Russell ’19.  Lighting design is by Mark Evancho, costume design is by Mira Veikley, and scene design is by Hallie Zieselman.  Adam Milano contributed a farcical movement sequence.
“Stupid F***ing Bird” will be performed on Thursday, April 7, and Friday, April 8, at 7:30 p.m.; and on Saturday, April 9, at 2 and 7:30 p.m. There will be a post-show discussion with the cast and crew following the Thursday night show.
Tickets are $12 for the general public; $10 for Middlebury College faculty, staff, alumni, emeriti and other ID card holders; and $6 for Middlebury College students. The Mahaney Center is located at 72 Porter Field Road in Middlebury, just off Route 30 south. Free parking is available.
For tickets or information, call (802) 443-MIDD (6433) or go to http://go.middlebury.edu/arts.