Tunneldog's Miss Julie Breaks Box Office Records

Jul 29th, 2004

Mobile, AL July 25, 2004 - The Tunneldog Project's production of August Strindberg's Miss Julie ended its two week run this past Sunday. The play was a huge success setting an attendance record at the Arlene Mitchell Theater and drawing theatergoers from as far away as Satsuma, Fairhope, and even New Orleans in addition to being embraced by local Mobile residents. Several students from the University of South Alabama, Bishop State and Spring Hill College—many of them first time theatergoers—took advantage of the low student ticket price.

The play, a psychological drama, is somewhat darker than usual summer theater fare, but this fact didn't keep audiences away. Christine Fall, the New York actress who portrayed the tortured Miss Julie was impressed by the turnout. "I didn't know what to expect, but the response was overwhelming."

In light of the response to this endeavor, Project members and Artistic Director Stephen Campbell are currently discussing plans for next summer and the possibility of an annual Tunneldog Project Summer Theater Festival.

"On the second night a woman insisted on being put on our mailing list—a list that didn't exist until that moment. By the end of the run the list was several pages long," says Campbell, "We must be doing something right."

Michael Getto, who played Jean says there will definitely be more. "We wanted to find out if a professional theater company could be successful here. I think we've done that."

The Tunneldog Project would like to thank everyone who came out to support this production.


About The Tunneldog Project
The Tunneldog Project was created in 1997 by Stephen Campbell as an extension of the Theater Department at Spring Hill College. Made up of current students, alumni, and local actors, Tunneldog's aim is to find a new way to test new things-adaptations of fiction and poetry, experiments in performance art, staged readings of new works, maybe looking for new ways of interpreting old things. Past works include Alice in Wonderland, Uncle Vanya and an original adaptation of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros.

About Strindberg's Miss Julie
It is a hot midsummer's eve and the old Count departs his estate to celebrate elsewhere. He leaves behind his beautiful daughter Julie, the last in the long line of his noble family. Miss Julie is despondent after the breaking off of her engagement to be married. She dances and drinks with the servants who certainly do not accept her as one of their own. A little drunk, she finds herself alone in the kitchen with Jean, her father's footman.

Jean is a strange man - handsome and anarchistic, resentful of the class system but greedy to rise to the top. For many years, he has watched and desired the young Miss Julie. They carry on drinking and become involved in an intense and revealing conversation which draws them together as the night goes on. They hide in his room when the servants come into the kitchen, and he seduces her.

By this late hour Miss Julie has begun to show signs of her deep depression and sometimes unbalanced state of mind. Jean sees her weaknesses and exploits them, humiliating her and pushing her towards the self-destruction that she has been hinting at all evening.


CONTACT INFORMATION:
Stephen Campbell, S.J.
Spring Hill College Theater
251-380-3899