Tartuffe, currently playing in Dillingham Center, will be collecting donations to benefit St. Johns #5 Baptist Church in New Orleans' 7th Ward. Much of the church's facility was destroyed when Hurricane Katrina came ashore in August 2005.Tartuffe, currently playing in Dillingham Center, will be collecting donations to benefit St. Johns #5 Baptist Church in New Orleans' 7th Ward. Much of the church's facility was destroyed when Hurricane Katrina came ashore in August 2005.
St. Johns #5 Baptist Church is a fellowship where all are welcomed to worship, but is committed to helping low-income families, children, unwed teen mothers, and HIV victims improve their current situations. Several of the facilities that allow the church to pursue its mission -- a computer training center, a center for children with learning disabilities, as well as housing for teen mothers and people infected with HIV -- were damaged during Hurricane Katrina.
A group of Ithaca College students spent their spring break in the 7th Ward, helping the church to try and rebuild. The student coordinator for the group, Colleen Shea, said, "Pastor Bruce and Deb Davenport are the best. I know all 20 of us who went down there were really touched by their story."
Set decades before Katrina, Moliere's Tartuffe is the comic story of a scheming hypocrite who cons a family into believing he is a pious man in order to steal their fortune. By setting Tartuffe in 1830s Louisiana, IC Theatre's production views this scathing social satire through the lens of the idiosyncratic race relations of that time and place.
All people of color in Louisiana lived under heavy law and restriction, but those who had come from France when Louisiana was still a French colony -- known as "free people of color" -- were treated differently than slaves from Haiti and the West Indies. Though they were considered citizens, the free people of color could not vote; a black woman could have a white male protector but they were not allowed to marry. Slaves, on the other hand, had no rights and were considered the property of their owners, as was the case in much of the rest of the South at that time.
Director Greg Bostwick has imagined a Tartuffe where the charlatan wreaks havoc on a wealthy family with ties that interweave race and privilege, shedding light on a particular moment in American history.
Donations to St. John’s may be made at the Dillingham Center lobby concessions stand during show hours. Performances of Tartuffe will be offered at 8:00 p.m. on April 23–25. Matinee performances will be offered at 2:00 p.m. on April 25 and 26. All performances will be held in the Hoerner Theatre in Dillingham Center on the Ithaca College campus. For tickets call 274-3224 or 273-4497.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20090422165830331