"THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS"
Mainstage presentation at Kansas ThesFest 2016

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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.