Apprentice Players to perform "Cloud Nine"

MIDDLETOWN — The student production of “Cloud Nine” will enjoy a six-show run at Orange Hall Theatre, beginning this weekend, as the SUNY Orange Apprentice Players have slated their spring performances for the weekends of April 12-14 and 19-21 on the college’s Middletown campus.

Evening performances, beginning at 8 p.m., will be held Friday and Saturday, April 12, 13, 19 and 20. Sunday matinee performances, on April 14 and 21, will begin at 3 p.m.

“Cloud Nine” contains strong language and sexual situations and is recommended for mature audiences only. There will be a "Talk Back" immediately after the Saturday, April 13 performance. The audience is invited to stay and discuss the production with the directors.

Written by Caryl Churchill, “Cloud Nine” is an audacious sex comedy that wraps gender-bending characters and outrageous sexuality in thought-provoking satire. Political and sexual oppression are explored in a time-twisted structure: 100 years pass between acts set in British colonial Africa and modern London, with recurring characters aging a mere 25 years. Using symbolism, Cloud Nine is a metaphorical place of great joy or euphoria that came about after the International Cloud Atlas of 1896 gave the cumulonimbus cloud the number nine out of a list of 10.

When Churchill was creating “Cloud Nine,” she and the actors turned to their own lives for inspiration. They discovered that many of them were raised with social and sexual values that were so out of date they might have come from another century. Time might march on, but humans don’t necessarily change so quickly. Churchill's slowly aging characters drive this idea home. In the exhilarating, time-travelling world of “Cloud Nine” age, gender, race and sexuality are defined and redefined — always with comedic bravura, not to mention the occasional burst of song.

Ticket prices are $14 for general admission; $10 for senior citizens, faculty and alumni; $4 for students; and free for active duty military personnel. Tickets may be purchased online at www.sunyorange.edu (click the Events link on the home page and follow to Online Ticketing). For more information, contact the Arts and Communication Department at 845-341-4790.

Orange Hall Theatre, located in Orange Hall, is universally accessible. Parking is available in the college parking lot at the intersection of Wawayanda and Grandview avenues.