Orono community theater revs up for ‘Rossum’s Universal Robots’

ORONO – Orono Community Theatre announced its fall production of “R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) A Fantastic Melodrama” by Karel Capek, directed by Travis Baker.

Capek gave the world the term “robot”- he coined it from the Czech word robota, which means “work.”

In “R.U.R.” the robots originally are created to perform the world’s work, to free human beings for higher pursuits -although the scientists’ predictions go terribly awry.

Capek wrote the play in 1919, just after World War I. The play premiered in Prague in 1921 and hit Broadway in 1922. At the time of its premiere, audiences enjoyed the play’s elements of melodrama and visual excitement, but they were touched by the fear and foreboding of confrontation with an increasingly industrial world.

Travis Baker, an award-winning playwright whose scenic work has appeared on Broadway as well as on the Orono Community Theatre stage, believes that “R.U.R.” continues to be relevant and entertaining to today’s audiences.

Baker sees the play “almost like a classic movie, with elements of love, greed, compassion, vengeance, ultimate sacrifice – and robots!”

His stellar cast of 13 hails from Orono, Milford, Old Town, Bangor and Stillwater. They are Patrick Molloy, Tina Michaels, Stefan Metropoulos, Greta Landis, Tellis Coolong, Tim White, Claire Ackroyd, Mike Curtis, Elmer Baxter, Laurie Pinkert, Dick Brucher, Hannah Cyrus and Tyler Costigan.

Performances will be presented at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 30-Dec. 1, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2, at the Keith Anderson Community House, 19 Bennoch Road.

Tickets are $10, $8 for students and seniors, available at Orono Pharmacy and at the door. For more information, call 866-5065.