After coming off of their summer production Tis Pity She’s a Whore, the USF theatre department will once again open its doors come the end of September, when Ashes by David Rudkin is slated to open. Following Ashes will be four more shows culminating in an April show written by a USF faculty member.

Opening up the 2004-05 season will be Ashes, which looks at the struggles of a couple unable to have a child. Rudkin made his theatrical debut in 1963 when the Royal Shakespeare Company performed his play Afore Night Come.

Ashes is a play that comes at the latter half of Rudkin’s writing career; it was written in 1972 and first performed in 1974.

Following the performance of Ashes, the theatre department will perform Adam Rapp’s Finer Noble Gasses. A contemporary play, Finer Noble Gasses follows the life of band members that have fallen into obscurity and now just slack off in a dump of an apartment while being entranced by technology. The performance will open at the end of October and will be directed at mature audiences due to strong language and nudity.

Opening up the spring semester of performances will be a BRIT program production. Each year the program hires a handful of British theatre professionals to teach and put on a Spring performance which presents Shakespeare and new works in alternating years.

Although the work has not been named, it will not likely be Shakespearean, as it was last season with The Tempest.

Following the BRIT production in February will be Samuel Beckett One Acts, a collection of one-act plays written by the late playwright who penned Waiting for Godot, a play performed by the USF theatre honors department in 1993. The one-act plays are still to be determined, as is the March opening date.

Closing out the 2004-05 season will be Cuban Bread, a play written by USF theatre professor Denis Calandra. Cuban Bread examines the life of Alonso Rivera, who is hired to read to cigar workers in Ybor City in the 1930s. The play examines the political and cultural climates of the time. The play will run from April 7-10 and April 13-17 in Theatre 2.