Iowa State’s legacy of varied and captivating performances continues this year with ISU Theatre’s 1996-97 season.

The Theatre’s seven productions offer the best in classical and contemporary dramatic literature, from a modern response to Euripides to Shakespeare, from four thrilling modern playwrights to one of America’s best-loved musicals.

This year could very well be considered the year of the woman given the number of female roles that prevail. Iowa State’s director of theater, Greg Henry, said this year’s line-up gives women a great opportunity to “dominate a script.” He said it was somewhat intentional.

“We’re always looking for that—roles with women,” he said. “There are always more women walking around the theater department than men. That’s nothing new.”

A small village in Ireland, 1936, is the setting for the season opener, Dancing at Lughnasa. The winner of both the Tony and Oliver Award for best play tells the story of five sisters and the wonders of the world transmitted through their radio. Henry calls the performance, “incredible” and “stunningly beautiful.”

On Nov. 1, ISU Theatre embarks on their most ambitious repertory series to date; Shakespeare’s Hamlet alternating with Lee Blessing’s Fortinbras.

The Cliffs Notes version of Hamlet is the story of a young man on a mission of revenge. Fortinbras is a comic interplay of contemporary wit and sly literary criticism which takes up where Hamlet left off. The student acting company plays the same roles in both plays.

Some may think that tackling Shakespeare is a feat in its own right without adding an alternating role. But for Tim Davis, a senior in theater studies, the leading role in Hamlet is bittersweet.

“I think it’s going to be difficult, but I think it’s going to be a difficulty we’ll enjoy,” he said. “To be able to take the same characters, and do a play with those same characters, and go in an entirely different direction.”

Henry says the actors are up to the challenge. “Hamlet is obviously one of the most famous plays,” he said. “But it’s doubly exciting when we have an opportunity to do a political satire.”

Henry added that Fortinbras makes “important points about the nature of leaders.” The production of the repertory is so complex that he and six of the actors involved have already begun rehearsing. He said that is because “everybody has a preconceived notion” as to the meaning of Hamlet, everybody gets something different out of it.

Greek mythology gets a ’90s make-over when a new adaptation of The Medea Myth takes stage. The tragic tale of an abandoned mother of two enacting a horrifying vengeance on her husband is given a rebirth by playwright Dan Plato.

The classical choral odes are replaces with the life stories of battered women whose attempts to save their own lives and the lives of their children cost them their freedom. Produced in conjunction with The Women’s Center and others, Medea also has a number of woman in the cast, about 25.

April brings Bye-Bye Birdie to C.Y. Stephens Auditorium when ISU Theatre joins forces with Stars Over Veishea. One of America’s favorite musicals, Birdie has it all: a teen idol, rock’n’roll, teenage girls and Ed Sullivan. Better than an episode of “The Partridge Family,” Bye-Bye Birdie is a classic musical rocked with fun.

ISU Theatre Second Stage returns with two plays in March and April. The first, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, is the story of a man and a woman who try to find love amidst the carnage of their lives. Cara Peterson, a senior in theater studies, directs.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile closes the season for ISU Theatre on a funny note. The comedy about the meeting in a Left Bank cafe of Pablo Picasso, Albert Einstein and a mysterious visitor from the future is also directed by a theater studies senior, Mark Sutch.

Season tickets are now on sale. For more information call 294-7611.