UTA THEATRE ARTS AND DANCE TO PRESENT
ROOM SERVICE
by John Murray and Allen Boretz
LOONY 1930’s FARCE REIMAGINED FOR CONTEMPORARY AUDIENCES
ARLINGTON, TX. September 1, 2024
The University of Texas at Arlington Department of Theatre Arts and Dance presents Room Service, the 1937 comedy by American playwrights Allen Boretz and John Murray, famously made into a film in 1938 by the Marx Brothers. The show runs for six performances in UTA’s Studio Theatre from October 9-13 at 7:30 pm, with matinee performances on October 12 and 13 at 2pm. Led by UTA Theatre Arts and Dance faculty, Room Service is directed by Sebastian Trainor with scenic design by D.J. Badon, Lighting and Costume Design by Phillip Schroeder, and Sound Design by Bill Eickenloff.
Room Service is pure, loony farce: Subversive theatrical producer Gordon Miller, neophyte playwright Leo Davis, and their company of twenty-one actors cannot meet the wealthy backer for their wonderful politically-engaged play-with-a-message unless they remain at the Broadway hotel where they are all living . . . on vastly overextended credit. They cannot remain at the hotel unless they pay their bill. And they cannot pay their bill until they receive money from the backer! Mayhem ensues. Says Trainor, “Our challenge in Room Service is to recapture the superabundant vitality of its original 1937 production — a runaway Broadway success into which Communist co-author Boretz deliberately embedded pro-Labor, pro-Russian, and anti-government motifs to be seen by a nation struggling through the Great Depression. The work is an example of how political and social themes are sometimes hidden in plain sight for American audiences.” To help the play’s subversive undertones read to contemporary audiences, the show has cast women as the play’s three producers — but women who, in the 1937 world of the play, must disguise themselves as men to be taken seriously in business, politics, and public life.
BFA Acting major and Room Service assistant director Faith Beene echoes Trainor’s thoughts about the play: “Audiences love a fun, upbeat farce. We love to witness whimsy and shenanigans, and we love to do it alongside other people. But this play has some serious content that our production aims to bring out.”
Stage Management Faculty, Hailey Green. Booth Stage Manager, Heather Schmidt. Deck Stage Manager, Laz Jarrell. Assistant Stage Managers, Jasmine Saurez & Aash Wilson.
Tickets are $22, $10 for students, seniors, and UTA faculty and staff. For tickets visit https://utatickets.com/.
The Department of Theatre Arts and Dance in the College of Liberal Arts at UTA provides comprehensive undergraduate education through theory, research, and practice in the performing arts, theatrical design, and dance. Theatre Arts and Dance’s educational environment is characterized by shared values, unity of purpose, diversity of opinion, mutual respect, and a commitment to lifelong learning.
ROOM SERVICE is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection. (www.dramatists.com)
For more information or interviews with the artistic team, contact Kris O’Brien at kobrien@uta.edu.