THEATER: ‘The Play in August’ in Salisbury | Feb.

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SALISBURY — This weekend’s «The Play in August» presents a fascinating juxtaposition between modern and historical theater.

The script, written in 2011 by Joel D. Eis, is based on another work, «The Bear and the Cub,» which was originally performed in Virginia in 1665.

«It’s really a play-within-a-play,» said Director T. Paul Pfeiffer. » ‘The Bear and the Cub’ was the first English-language play written in the colonies, and it was performed in Accomack, and led to a series of court trials because it was considered seditious.

«But there’s only bits of the play that survived, and what (Eis has done is taken those bits and put them together, and made a fuller play around the kind of thing that probably, in his mind, led to the writing of this work.»

The play will be presented as a one-off production in Salisbury University’s Black Box Theater, and is co-sponsored by SU’s Nabb Center.

Set to be staged during the height of tax season, the work could likely strike a major chord with audiences.

«It was in response to overtaxation,» Pfeiffer said. «At the time, all the farmers were suffering from drought, and the king was sending tax collectors over with soldiers. (The colonists were under new law to trade only with London merchants, so the farmers were stuck; they had to sell their goods at whatever price (the English would pay, and … eventually they were basically buying their own stuff back at a higher cost.»

Pfeiffer said the timing of the production wasn’t specifically planned to coincide with tax time, although he welcomes any parallels the public may draw.

«It wasn’t planned, but we did realize it when we were setting the dates,» he noted. «We thought, ‘This will be timely!’ Maybe that will get a couple more laughs out of it.»

Auditions for the play began in early February, with all but two members of the cast being comprised of SU students.

The staging for the work will be minimal, with actors reading from the script in period costumes against the backdrop of an upcoming production of «Romeo and Juliet.»

«It’s very rudimentary, but it will certainly have elements of a full production in terms that it will have a finished-looking stage that’s supposed to be nondescript,» said Pfeiffer.

Of considerable note is that the playwright will be on hand, and will speak with the audience immediately following the production.

«The focus is still on the word, but it should also be something a little more grand,» Pfeiffer said. «For me, it’s about giving the playwright the opportunity to hear his words and see how it feels when you hear them because it’s a work in progress. Because it’s a new thing, he needs that opportunity, and my focus is about giving him what he needs as a playwright.

«The curious thing about the play is that it’s 111 years before the Declaration of Independence, and yet it’s the same ideas; it predicts it. And, to some extent it might seem a little hokey, but it’s true; it did. Those conditions very likely would have started the conversation.

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