Bridge Street Theatre Presents THERE IS A HAPPINESS THAT MORNING IS

An inappropriately public display of affection upends the lives of two William Blake scholars in Mickle Maher's raucous celebration of art, ardor, and academia "There is a Happiness That Morning Is", coming to Catskill's Bridge Street Theatre for eight performances only, Thursdays through Sundays from September 6 - 16, 2018.

For fifteen years, two professors at a crumbling Liberal Arts College in rural New England have been carrying on a clandestine love affair while simultaneously lecturing on the poetry of William Blake - he on 'Songs of Innocence', she on 'Songs of Experience". But their classes today will be particularly challenging. Last night while conducting an impromptu al fresco lecture on the college quad, the pair became so carried away while reading Blake aloud that they threw off their clothes and made mad, passionate love in full view of all their students as well as the school's puritanical president. Now, desperate to salvage both their careers and their love, they must convince a scandalized campus community that this 'public showing' of their 'dew-dipped thighs' was the apotheosis of Blakean ecstasy or lose their jobs. Oh, and did we mention that the play is written, like Blake's poems, almost entirely in rhymed couplets? This is one set of lectures no student (or audience) in their right mind would want to miss.

Bridge Street Theatre's production of this word-drunk romp features Molly Parker Myers as Professor Ellen Parker, Brian Petti as Professor Bernard Barrow, and Steven Patterson as President Dean. The play is directed and designed by Bridge Street Theatre Artistic Director John Sowle with costumes by Michelle Rogers and features a song composed especially for this production by Catskill's Frank Cuthbert. Production Stage Manager is Julia Rothwax.

"There is a Happiness That Morning is" will be presented Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2:00pm from September 6-16 on the Bridge Street Theatre Mainstage, located at 44 West Bridge Street in the Village of Catskill, NY. The Thursday September 6th preview and the Sunday September 9th matinee are both "Pay-What-You-Will" performances ("Pay-What-You-Will" tickets are available only at the door prior to the performance and are subject to availability). Advance tickets are available for $22 online at thereisahappiness.BrownPaperTickets.com or by calling 800-838-3006. Tickets can also be purchased at the door prior to each performance (on a space available basis) for $25. Students ages 21 and under are always $10. For more details, visit the theatre online at BridgeSt.org.

Events and performances in Bridge Street Theatre's 2018 Season are made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and by Public Funds from the Greene County Legislature through the Greene County Cultural Fund, administered in Greene County by the Greene County Council on the Arts.

Photo Credit: John Sowle

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