"THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS" Mainstage presentation at Kansas ThesFest 2016
November 13 & 14, 2015 at the Helen Hocker Theater January 8, 2016 at the Mary Jane Teall Theatre, Wichita, KS
CAST Jake Bernard* as Dr. John Faustus Dalton Frantz* as Mephistophilis Catelyn Rees* as The Good Angel Kendall Rees* as The Evil Angel A CHORUS OF CHARACTERS including the Pope, the Emperor of Germany, Lucifer and the Seven Deadly Sins played by: Cade Dennis, Michael Duncan* Sydney Frantz, Ethan Gentry* Madelynn Kurtz*, Katy Lobmeyer Daniel Madsen*, Mollie McClanahan* James Nioce, Isabelle Pryor Mitch Quaney*, Lea Ramos Trevor Schoenhofer*
PRODUCTION STAFF Mark Radziejeski - Director/Designer Vicky Gomez - Stage Manager Dylan Legleiter* - Stage Manager - Projection Control Brenden Feldt* - Production Manager - Sound Control Nick D'Attilio* - Tech Director - Lighting Control Jake Bernard*, Dalton Frantz* - Costumes & Masks Mady Evans, Alli Sheetz* - Hair & Makeup * denotes member of Hayden Thespians, Troupe #7275
THE STORY Doctor Faustus, a well-respected scholar, grows dissatisfied with the limits of traditional forms of knowledge—logic, medicine, law, and religion—and decides that he wants to learn to practice magic. He begins his new career as a magician by summoning up Mephistophilis, a devil. Despite Mephistophilis’ warnings about the horrors of hell, Faustus tells the devil to return to his master, Lucifer, with an offer of Faustus’s soul in exchange for service from Mephistophilis. As hours of his deal with Lucifer come to a close, Faustus begins to dread his impending death. In his final hour, Faustus is overcome by fear and remorse. He begs for mercy, but it is too late. At midnight, a host of devils appears and carries his soul off to hell.
Good, Evil and the Morality Play in Doctor Faustus Elizabethan drama gradually evolved out of the religiously-themed plays frequently performed during the medieval period. These religious plays, the most popular of which were called ‘morality plays,’ were usually sponsored by the Church and depicted battle the between good and evil forces for men’s souls (the most famous of these plays is the anonymously-penned play Everyman, in which a good angel and evil angel try to convince the lead character, Everyman, to join their respective sides.) The author, Christopher Marlowe, clearly draws on conventions from traditional morality plays in Doctor Faustus. Yet Marlowe, a self-proclaimed atheist (Queen Elizabeth ordered his arrest for being an atheist in 1593,) makes this struggle between good and evil more complicated.