News & Events 2006-2007

Blair Academy Players Present Classic Comedy

The Blair Academy Players presented their final performance of The Braggart Soldier by Plautus (translated by Erich Segal) as part of Spring Arts Weekend on Saturday, May 12, in the Robert J. Evans Open Air Theatre.

Craig Evans, director and chair of the performing arts department, comments: “Before there was Neil Simon, William Shakespeare or Moliere, there was Plautus, a Roman comedy writer who is often given credit for writing the first comedies as we know them. In fact, Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona and the Broadway musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, are both based on Plautus’ works from over 2,000 years ago. Plautus’ comedies were performed in Rome on the occasion of a festival, and the Blair Academy Players production is no different, as it is the performing art department’s contribution to the Blair’s Spring Arts Weekend.”

Craig adds, “The play centers on the title character Pyrgopolynices (played by senior Ryan Class),who owns a young girl Philocomasium (played by freshman Nathalie Tilley). whose lover Pleusicles (played by junior Tito Rinaldo) wants her back. His former slave Palaestrio (played by junior Andrew Hutcheson) now works for the soldier, and in true Plautine fashion, the slave is the catalyst for the machinations and role playing that follow to make true love win the day. Opposing Palaestrio in his schemes is fellow servant Sceledrus, (played by sophomore Matt Cable), though the lovers have help from the soldier’s neighbor Periplectomenus (played by sophomore Mike Breslin), the courtesan Acroteleutium (played by junior Bekah Kall), her maid Miliphidippa (played by sophomore Quincey Lewinson) and Periplectomenus’s cook Cario (played by sophomore Roileigh Ollson). The play’s student director is sophomore Zach Flaugher.”

Updated 5/11/07

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