From Feb. 20-23, the world will be coming to an end. Actually, it will teeter on the edge of ruin with the UTC Mainstage Theater performance of “The Skin of Our Teeth.” Written by two-time Pulitzer winner Thornton Wilder and directed by Maureen McIntyre, “The Skin of Our Teeth” is the first production of the spring semester. Performances are at 8 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday, Feb. 23. Tickets are $10 general admission and $8 for students with a student ID. The play is a dense commentary on social issues. The Antrobus’s are the central family unit of the play along the maid/temptress Sabina, and a revolving cast of characters with allusions spanning the centuries. “We’re doing it because unfortunately, the idea of the human race surviving has become an issue, as well as the issue of the importance of family values, of being a family,” McIntyre said. McIntyre said a cast of 31 plays the 55 different roles. With the difficulty of the content, set changes and a constantly rotating cast of characters, coordination is a concern. “The rehearsal process really helps define each of the different characters,” Angel Bell, who portrays Sabina, said. “It’s kind of crazy backstage with people running around, trying to get where they’re supposed to be, making sure that it’s quiet. I think it’s going to pull together to be a really great show.”According to McIntyre, the three acts skip around time and settings. The first act is set in a house during an impending ice age, the second on a flashy boardwalk during an impending storm and the third in the house again after a devastating war. “The only thing that’s consistent with the whole thing is that it’s pretty much the same characters. Other than that, it’s basically three different one-acts,” Addison Roush, who plays Mr. Antrobus, said. “Three different time periods and times, if you will.”The character of Mr. Antrobus demonstrates one of the main themes: history repeats itself. “The amount of interaction and the amount of change that he goes through, but then again the lack of change that he goes through at the same time,” Roush said. “He goes through so much change in the sense of his relationships with people but his views on things don’t change much.” As for following the script, McIntyre opted to follow it almost precisely instead of re-interpreting. The only difference from Thornton’s work is that every scene is set in 1942 instead of severely jumping eras, McIntyre said. “Men suppress the past. He has an instinct to it; we either change it or suppress the past,” she said. “We forget the lessons we learn – so in this play, which won a Pulitzer right after the war, its statements are still relevant.”For more information on “The Skin of Our Teeth,” contact the Theatre Department at (936) 294-1329 or visit the Web site at http://www.shsu.edu/~drm_www/.
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