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CLEMSON DRAMA STUDENTS TO PERFORM
AT INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL
Clemson University’s performing arts department is taking its act on the road, more precisely across the Atlantic Ocean. The Clemson Players will present their original interpretation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th century masterpiece “The Decameron” at the 2006 Fringe Edinburgh Festival, this summer in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Fringe Festival is the world’s largest performing arts festival. The monthlong event, in August, includes theatrical events, such as drama, children’s productions, physical theatre and comedy. Last year’s festival presented 26, 995 performances of 1,799 shows in nearly 250 venues.
“This is a chance of a lifetime for our students,” said Richard Goodstein, chairman of the performing arts department. “The Fringe is our opportunity to perform on a world stage before an international audience. Our students have the chance to see some of the best stage work being produced today, as well as the chance to meet international producers and directors.”
“The Decameron Project,” the Clemson adaptation of Boccaccio’s classic novel, recounts the stories told by nobles, knights, peasants, troubadours, gamblers, lovers, hypocrites, nuns and spendthrifts. For more than a year, 11 Clemson University student actors, musicians, writers and designers met as a class and worked to bring the words to the stage. “This is one of the first times the text has been adapted for the stage, especially using original music and dance,” said performing arts professor Mark Charney, who wrote the stage version and directed the play.
One student involved in the production said the play is more than just a play, it’s an academic exercise as well. “‘The Decameron Project’ is more than a Clemson Players production, it’s a class,” said Emily Perkins, a performing arts student. “We met weekly developing a script, composing music and designing the production. The play is a collaborative project. We worked closely with professors Charney and Goodstein to develop the show, and we received grades for our work.”
“The primary difference between the book and the play is length,” said Mike East, another student involved in the project. “The original text is well over 1,000 pages and contains 100 stories. The play, on the other hand, is a condensed version, but is true to the original. Our play also contains a narrative that connects each story and recounts around 10 stories.”
The original text follows 10 young Florentines who escape from the plague by retreating to an Italian villa in the countryside. On the journey and at the villa, the 10 keep each other entertained by telling one bawdy tale after another.
In addition to developing an original script, the student team designed an original set and lighting and composed new music for the show.
“The Decameron Project” premiered at Clemson University’s Brooks Center for the Performing Arts in November and has received favorable reviews at statewide and regional theatre festivals. “We were honored to receive outstanding reviews from several panels of distinguished theatre professionals,” said Goodstein, who also serves as the show’s co-producer.
About The Fringe Edinburgh Festival
Approaching its 60th anniversary (2007), the Fringe Edinburgh Festival was created as a post-World War II initiative to re-unite Europe through culture. The first festival in 1947 featured several main stage productions as well as eight theatre groups who crashed the event. Since the inns and main stages were full, these gatecrashers set up shop in venues away from the big theatre houses. Even without the aid of a central box office or advance publicity, the interlopers were highly successful.
The following year, Robert Kemp, writer for the “Evening News” unknowingly coined the name that has stuck with the festival for 59 years: “Round the fringe of the official Festival drama, there seems to be a more private enterprise than before.” Today, the Fringe is an international performing arts festival that regularly features performances by some of today’s most popular stage actors and entertainers, including Hugh Grant, David Schwimmer, Emma Thompson, Robin Williams, Billy Connolly and Jude Law. On its 50th anniversary, “The Guinness Book of Records” named the Fringe as the largest festival in the world, a fact that remains unchallenged to this day. The event attracts nearly 750 talent scouts, promoters and producers, as well as more than 1,000 accredited members of the media representing 40 different countries.
