THE DENTIST
by Terry Glaser
April 8th- 18th, 2021
Director: Jeff Darland
Pre-Show Director: Donna Boyd
Set Designer: Sarah Cook
Costume Designer: Taylor Aragon
Production Stage Manager: Hannah Allison
The Dentist was the department’s first in-performance after the COVID pandemic shut down theaters worldwide in 2020. Performances were outdoors at the VCU Park Plaza amphitheater. Actors and audience members wore masks, and audience members practiced social distancing.
About the Dentist
Love, vengeance……and slapstick!
The Dentist is a zany tale of improvised dialogue, physical acting, and colorful characters. Youthful lovers, aging lust, clever servants, foolish masters and eccentric townsfolk collide in crazy combinations and schemes.
It all begins when Pantalone, the town’s most powerful citizen, stirs up a hornet’s nest of unrest. He woos his son’s sweetheart, bites his servant on the arm, and pits himself against friend and foe alike. The aggrieved citizens hatch a plot to get revenge and save the young lovers. They enlist the services of the local baker, Pulcinella, a dental-guild drop-out with a bagful of terrifying tools and a sadistic plan. Come watch this collision course of physical stunts and verbal fireworks— will Pantalone fall for the ruse or have his own revenge in turn?
The Dentist is based off the traditional commedia form of theatre, a fifteenth century form of ‘Italian Comedy’ where actors in traditional masks and costumes use slapstick to play stock characters.
Many laughs and a rowdy performance!
About the Playwright
Terry Glaser is a playwright, translator, librettist, stage director, actor, and acting teacher. She has worked both in academia and the professional theatre for over 30 years. She has taught across the country. Her writing includes original scripts and translations of classic plays and operas, including “Pardon My Greed!” (selected to be performed Off Broadway at the Red Bull Theater’s 2019 Short New Play Festival), “Love-Blooded”, a tragicomedy about the Trojan War, “The Frogs,” “A Flea in Her Ear,” “The Surprise of Love,” “The Dentist,” and “Orfeo.” Her original solo shows include “The Mysterious Dwarf,” and “Chekhov, Live!” Ms. Glaser has served as stage director for over 50 professional and university productions and has performed her solo shows and conducted master classes throughout the country. Ms. Glaser holds a B.A. in Playwriting from Brown University and an M.A. in Theatre (Directing) from Syracuse University. She has specialized professional training in the Michael Chekhov Technique, Richard Schechner’s Rasaboxes™, period style, Commedia dell’Arte, red-nose clown, and Lecoq. In 2012, Ms. Glaser became the first recipient of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education/Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region 8 Award for Innovative Teaching.
