The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC

April 19, 2012

Two plays set for ECC this weekend

Staff Writer
Mayah Collins

TARBORO — Edgecombe Community College’s drama classes will perform in plays geared to engage, entice and entertain the entire community Friday and Saturday.

In honor of one of the most famous Elizabethan playwright’s, William Shakespeare, the ECC Acting II class will perform in “An Evening with the Bard: Scenes from four great plays.”

The performance will begin 8 p.m. Friday in McIntyre Auditorium on the Tarboro campus.

Four actors will take the stage and perform a series of scenes from Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello and Much Ado About Nothing.

According to Roberta Cashwell, theater arts education instructor, actors identified themselves with a particular Shakespeare play that they enjoyed and found a way to make a connection with their character.

A play more suitable for the youth and young at heart will also take place in McIntyre on Saturday.

ECC’s Children Theater class will perform Kenneth Grahame’s classic children tale, Wind in the Willows at 10 a.m.

The moral of the play teaches children that when friends stick together, they can accomplish anything.

“It has a lot of action and fantasy and the kids would love it,” Cashwell said. “The kid’s imagination will be engaged by the actors, their makeup and their costumes.”

 “The energy is really high and we’re excited about it,” Anna Satterthwaite, who plays the Weasel, Alice and the Policeman in the play said. “The main thing I have to focus on is makeup for three different characters. It’s a big thing I need to do. It is kind of a challenge preparing for three characters, but I like challenges.”

Coley Sykes plays the character of Toad. This flamboyant character is sure to make children’s imagination run wild she said.

 “It’s a fun character, because I get to move around a lot,” Sykes said. “For me it was bringing out my inner childhood to help connect with my character and just having fun and using my imagination to run wild. “

Admission is free for all performances.