By Beatrice Fenyes-Gartenberg, Department of Performing and Media Arts

“Orlando’s Gift,” a new play inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel “Orlando” will premiere Nov. 1 on campus.

The play, collaboratively created by Cornell students, faculty and guest artists, and written and directed by Professor David Feldshuh, tells the love story of Woolf and her hero/heroine, Orlando.

Orlando – who has too many selves to count – lives forever in a giddy world of fantasy, wit, surprise and theatrical adventure. The author and the character discover the power of words to celebrate life and the ecstasy of the imagination at work.

Opening night will feature a post-show discussion between Feldshuh, professor in the Department of Performing and Media Arts (PMA) in the College of Arts and Sciences; and Oskar Eustis, A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell and artistic director of The Public Theater in New York City. The discussion will be followed by a reception for the cast, crew, friends and any audience members who choose to stay.

Eustis will also take part in an event earlier that day, “In Conversation with Oskar Eustis,” moderated by Feldshuh. That event is Nov. 1, from 4:30-5:30 p.m., in the Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. It is free and open to the public; tickets are not required.

“Orlando’s Gift” will be performed in the Class of ’56 Flexible Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Free tickets can be reserved here.

The crew is composed largely of Cornell students. “Because ‘Orlando’s Gift’ is a new play that has never been produced before, rehearsal is more accurately described as creation,” said Sarah Bewley ’27, assistant stage manager and a student in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering in Cornell Engineering. “The director, cast and designers discover the ways that Virginia Woolf’s and Orlando’s stories want to be told.”

Full story published in the Cornell Chronicle (September 28, 2024)