Armitage features Gothic ghosts

University Theatre will present "Armitage", a tale of murder, mystery and love, at the Seney Stovall Chapel Feb. 7-12 at 8 p.m., with an additional performance at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday Feb. 12.

Set in the Midwestern town of Armitage in the 19th century, the play relates the story of the Pendragon family.

"The audiences gradually piece together the family's shocking secret from the bitterly divided perspectives of its various members, including the patriarch Zachary Pendragon, his enraged stepdaughter and his tormented son," said David Zucker Saltz, head of the department of theatre and film studies in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. "The stories of Camelot serve as the frame for this Gothic drama."

One of America's most prolific playwrights, Don Nigro has written more than 300 plays, many of which have been produced to acclaim throughout the world. Director Kristin Kundert-Gibbs has worked with the playwright several times, including on the original staged reading of "Armitage," and she draws on this personal relationship in the current production.

The department of theatre and film studies continues to produce high-level professional theatre for the UGA campus and Athens community. "Armitage" is part of Nigro's cycle of Pendragon County plays, now numbering well over two dozen, which trace American history from the eighteenth century to the present through the lives of several generations of interconnected families from an east Ohio town (wikipedia). Be sure to catch this UGA production.

Image: Adron Farris/UGA

pictured, clockwise from left: Matt Bowdren, MFA Performance student; Connor Brockmeier, sophomore theatre and english major; Tressa Preston, MFA Performance student; Emerald Toller, freshman theatre and broadcast journalism double major; and Kyla Sklar, sophomore marketing and mass media arts major.