BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY

Teacher Mr. M. (center, played by Dean Bryson) moderates a debate about South Africa’s future between Thami Mbikwana (left, Charles Dent) and Isabel Dyson (right, Katrina Milnes) in a scene from the BGSU Theatre production of "My Children! My Africa!"

'My Children! My Africa!' onstage this week

South African playwright Athol Fugard’s “My Children! My Africa!” will open the University’s spring theatre season.

Presented by the theatre and film department, performances will be at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday (Feb. 12-14), and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (Feb. 14 and 15) in the Joe E. Brown Theatre in University Hall.

Fugard’s controversial 1989 drama illustrates the profound struggles of three characters living in apartheid-ravaged South Africa. Dedicated teacher Mr. M attempts to raise two high school students—one black, one white—above the intense political and social strife surrounding them as they are all forced to make life-altering decisions against the backdrop of ever-increasing violence and a failing education system.

“My Children! My Africa!” is directed by Dr. Eileen Cherry-Chandler, theatre and film. It stars Dean Bryson, a junior music education and Africana studies major from Euclid, as Mr. Anela Myalatya; Charles Dent, a sophomore theatre and telecommunications major from Lima, as Thami Mbikwana, and Katrina Milnes, a senior dance and theatre major from Bridgeport, W.Va., as Isabel Dyson. The production is stage managed by Brittny Adkins, a senior theatre major from Hilliard.

Single tickets are $12 for students and other adults, $6 for children under 12, and $5 for senior citizens. Group rates are available. Contact the theatre box office at 2-2719 for more information or to purchase tickets.

The remainder of the BGSU spring season includes “The Trojan Women” by Euripides, translated by Brendan Kennelly (Feb. 26-28), “Into the Woods”by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine (April 2-5), and “Monkey Storms Heaven,”adapted by Bradford Clark, theatre and film, from “The Journey to the West” by Wu Cheng’en (April 23-25).