ASU MainStage season opener We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! offers satirical look at soaring cost of living

Who
Dario Fo’s sidesplitting comedy about skyrocketing food prices, We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!opens the ASU Herberger College School of Theatre and Film MainStage season on Sept. 26 with a production designed specifically for area audiences. The play is set in a modern-day Phoenix where local personalities interact with Fo’s characters Margherita and Antonia, two women compelled to steal food when their pocketbooks could be stretched no more.

What
The production is directed by William Partlan, associate professor in the ASU Herberger College School of Theatre and Film and an internationally renowned theatre director and producer.

“The play is about hunger,” he says. “It is a protest against the hunger of the lower classes and their ongoing mistreatments by big business.”

The MainStage season is the premiere platform for the community of artists, scholars, students and staff who comprise the School of Theatre and Film. Dedicated to moving theatre and film arts into the future, the school presents a season that pushes the boundaries of contemporary work through an active and diverse production program.

“Our season will explore the boundaries that separate people from their homelands, from each other, from their dreams,” says Linda Essig, director of the School of Theatre and Film, and artistic director of the MainStage Theatre. “It will be an exciting season, filled with opportunities for our students and our audiences to learn, to laugh and to see the world from new perspectives. Come join us!”

Dario Fo, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature, first published We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! in 1974 in his native Italy. The play has been produced internationally.

Where
Lyceum Theatre, 901. S. Forest Mall, ASU Tempe campus

When
Sept. 26 – 27 & Oct. 2 – 4 at 7:30 p.m.; Sept. 28 & Oct. 5 at 2 p.m.

Cost
$7–$22; Buy-one, get-one-free on the first Friday of any MainStage production.

Public Contact
Herberger College box office, 480.965.6447; School of Theatre and Film, 480.965.5337; 
http://mainstage.asu.edu 

The School of Theatre and Film in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University provides a comprehensive range of courses in performance and directing; design and production; new work development; theatre and performance studies; film; and theatre for youth. Its Theatre for Youth program is nationally ranked in the top three and the dramatic writing/playwriting program is ranked 15th among public institutions by U.S.News & World Report. To learn more about the School of Theatre and Film, visit theatrefilm.asu.edu.

Media Contact:
Laurie A. Trotta Valenti
ASU Herberger College
School of Theatre and Film
480.965.3381
laurie.trotta@asu.edu