As a special project this semester, a group of graduate students have created a special design for a production of King Lear. We are planning to enter this design in an international exhibition, the 2003 Prague Quadrennial. The Prague Quadrennial (PQ) is the pre-eminent scenographic exhibition in the world, and one of the theatre community's most important international events. As the PQ is staged every four years and draws participation from all areas of the world (over 50 countries are currently planning on participating), it has been considered the Olympics for theatre designers. The particular challenge for our project is to create a "Lear for our Times" using a "site-specific" location that would reveal this "ancient" play in a "new and fresh" way.

As we prepare our exhibition, we hope to get feedback from our faculty, staff, and students along the way. To accomplish this we will be exhibiting this "work in progress" all day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of finals week (December 11-13) in the room adjacent to the Tech Office. A public feedback session will follow on Friday December 13, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Trap Room. In order to create the best possible exhibition for this important international event, we would appreciate any and all feedback we can get from our faculty, staff, students and friends of the theatre.

We won't promise that you will like what you see. However, we are confident that you have never encountered a Lear quite like our King Lear at Ground Zero.

Thank you.

Rick Thomas, Project Director