September 18, 2000 Arts & Lectures 2000-01 season offers high drama By Barbara McKenna Tale of Teeka, a fable about a young boy and his goose, is one of many diverse Arts & Lectures offerings for the 2000-01 season. Aristotle wrote that theater should be, "a place of fun and pleasure"--a haven for audiences to escape to. With a few exceptions, his viewpoint held sway until the early 1900s when the experimentation of such thinkers as Russian director Konstantin Stanislavsky and German playwright Bertolt Brecht expanded the function of theater to something beyond pure entertainment. Since then, the boundaries of conventional theater have been continuously stretched and played with, generating a wide (and sometimes wild) array of performance experiences. That array will be well represented during the 2000-01 season of UCSC's Arts & Lectures program, when five very different companies bring their unique brand of theater to town. We spoke with the artistic directors of each of these companies to uncover their ideas on the function of theater. Their views are presented here in the order in which the companies will be appearing in Santa Cruz; and don't worry--although opinions varied on many things, everyone agreed that theater should be fun. To see a listing of the entire A&L season, visit: events.ucsc.edu/artslecs/calendar.html. For tickets and more information, call (831) 459-2159. Go to interviews with: Rodrigo Duarte Clarke October 11: Rosita's Day of the Dead Rinde Eckert October 28: Romeo Sierra Tango Julia Rodriguez Elliott and Geoff Elliott January 26: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Daniel Meilleur April 7: Tale of Teeka Richard Corley April 12: O Pioneers! Return to Front Page