York College Theatre to Turn on the Lights with 'MR. BURNS' This March

The York College of Pennsylvania Theatre Division presents the first show of their Spring 2017 semester, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play by Anne Washburn with a score by Michael Friedman.

The show is directed by Professor Suzanne Delle, and will run on the Waldner Performing Arts Center main stage Thursday - Saturday, March 22-25, 2017 at 7:30PM. Seats can be reserved now on the Theatre Division webpage at ycp.edu.

As part of their cartoon-inspired 2016-2017 season, York College is bringing The Simpsons from the screen to the WPAC stage. This new play by Anne Washburn explores how a digital society would cope with a post-apocalyptic, post-electric world. In the show, a group of strangers find comfort and common ground over their mutual love of The Simpsons. Over the course of the night you will follow this new society more than 80 years into the future, from piecing their memories of episodes together to staged versions including commercials to a full musical adaptation of the episode, all the while discovering how our memories slowly shift without technology to guide us.

The play specifically follows the "Cape Feare" episode of The Simpsons, which originally aired in 1993 and continues to top fan favorites lists. A parody of the Robert DeNiro movie Cape Fear, the episode follows Sideshow Bob's plan to kill Bart Simpson after Sideshow Bob is paroled from prison. The show features all of your favorite Simpsons characters, including Homer (Charlie Roberts '19), Marge (Shaiquanna Bailey '18), Bart (Tiffany Flaharty '19), Lisa (Grace Ramsay '18), Sideshow Bob (Nolan Benner '17), and a whole chorus of Springfield regulars. Avid fans will love every reference, and those newer to the Simpsons will enjoy the many other pop culture references.

Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play premiered in May 2012 in Washington, D.C. and quickly moved to New York City where it was nominated for a 2014 Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play. In his review for Vulture, Scott Brown called the show "equal parts Brecht and Bart, Homer and the other Homer." Summing up the show by writing: "Mr. Burns isn't really about the future at all, but the past that won't let us go."

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