t

 Japanese theatre comes to Williamsport when the Department of Drama, Theatre, and Dance of Queen’s College -- CUNY presents a Kabuki-style performance of Oscar Wilde’s "Salome" at Lycoming College at 8 p.m. on March 17.

The play is directed by Dr. Dallas McCurley and is part of Lycoming’s spring symposium titled "East/West: Points of Contact." The performance is free and will be held in Clarke Chapel

Wilde’s play relates the legend of Salome, the young princess and stepdaughter of King Herod, who has great affection for John the Baptist. When John the Baptist resists her advances, she asks Herod to have him beheaded. Herod agrees, but only if Salome will dance for him. She performs the famous Dance of the Seven Veils, and John the Baptist’s head is delivered to her so she can finally kiss him.

The play is adapted to the traditional Japanese Kabuki style theatre, featuring highly stylized dance and motions.

"The form of kabuki lends itself to Salome"says director Dallas McCurley, a professor of theatre at both Queens College and The Graduate Center - CUNY. "Kabuki, originally meaning ‘bent’ in the pleasure quarters of seventeenth-century Japan, had its own beginnings in erotic dance. Additionally, kabuki is known for its richness of musical expression, its principle of stylized physical and vocal exaggeration, and its requirement that the performer and audience engage in shifts of theatrical perspective uncommonly found in western realism. Wilde’s script, while crafted within a western tradition, has long been noted for possessing each of these same traits."

The adapted Kabuki form that we will be performing is unique to our own training," explains McCurley, professor of theatre at Queens College and the Graduate Center -CUNY. "New York has long been the center of the American version of method-acting--what is generally recognized as a very realistic acting style."

According to Dr. Amy Golahny, Lycoming College art professor and coordinator of the East/West symposium, the presentation by Queens College is a unique opportunity for the community to see a traditional form of Japanese theatre.

"Salome" will play only one night on the Lycoming College campus, as a special event of the symposium. Generous funding for the symposium is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.

Admission to "Salome" is free.

-End-