Posted by vrcvanderbilt on Thursday, February 15, 2018 in Events, HART, News, Student/Alumni, VRC.

Miranda Pepin, HART student worker and an A&S senior, plays Orlando in the VU Theatre production of Orlando, an adaptation of a 1928 novel by Virginia Woolf, that runs for two weekends beginning Friday, February 16. The production, directed by Jessika Malone, a Fred Coe Artist-in-Residence, will take place in Neely Auditorium at 8 pm on February 16, 17, 23 and 24. Performances also are scheduled at 2 pm February 18 and 7 pm February 21.

The Vanderbilt production is playwright Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of Woolf’s story, with the main character living through centuries first as a man and later as a woman. “As an exploration of gender, love and sexuality, Orlando takes us on a journey of self-discovery and self-reflection applicable even today,” said Malone.

“Beginning in Elizabethan London, Orlando first learns love under the regal gaze of Queen Elizabeth, but is soon wooed by the graceful yet masculine Princess Sasha of Russia,” said Julie Jones, the production’s dramaturg and a senior who is majoring in international development and social change.

“After many heartbreaks and false romances, Orlando escapes to Constantinople, where he awakes as a woman in the 18th century. Orlando returns to London, again struggling with deceitful archdukes before falling in love with a sailor, entering the 20th century, and finally finishing her epic poem.”

Pepin, a physics major with minors in theatre and scientific computing, has worked in HART’s Visual Resources Center since 2017. She performed in the Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s signature program, Shakespeare in the Park, last summer.

*Miranda Pepin (Orlando) and Grace Allaman (Chorus) in VU Theatre production of Orlando (photograph by Phillip Franck/Vanderbilt University; article by Ann Marie Deer Owens, Vanderbilt News)