Apparently, the satirical 1970 album The Begatting of the President was not the last matchup of Orson Welles and Richard Nixon – at least that’s what a new play wants audiences to think.
Orson Welles Presents: An Evening with Nixon is the first-ever production of Oracular Studios – Wisconsin’s newest arts collective. According to a release, Oracular Studios was the dream of a group of college friends to run their own business and make their own art, beginning with this fantasy interaction between two famed men of the 20th century.
In September, a Kickstarter campaign raised $1,806 – 20 percent more than its goal – to launch the stage production. Oracular Studios is making good on its Kickstarter promise to stage the play at the Bartell Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin from November 29 to December 2, 2023.
The play is set in 1985. the 70-year-old Welles is nearing the end of his life. He has renounced the Hollywood machine and returned to his roots in the theater, where he will put on a grand magic show and “channel” the spirit of former President Richard M. Nixon. But to his own amazement, Welles actually summons the former president — despite the fact that Nixon is not yet dead. What follows is a battle for the stage between the two men who Oracular Studios says “find themselves nearly swallowed by their own shadows.”
Orson Welles Presents: An Evening with Nixon was written by Finn Gallagher and Nathaniel Klein. It will be directed by Klein. Other credits include costume design and assistant direction by Lang Phillippi; set design and stage management by Dilion Sheehan and lighting by Tristan Ketcham.
For more information, visit https://bartelltheatre.org/2023/orson-welles-presents-an-evening-with-nixon/
A trailer produced by Oracular Studios can be seen on YouTube and Vimeo.
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