What would happen to the Peanuts gang if they were in high school today?\u00a0 \u201cDog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead\u201d uses this question to explore issues of adolescence, including sexuality, drugs, language and a blockhead\u2019s place in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know those characters, we know those friendships, but they\u2019re not healthy anymore,\u201d said Director Brian McKnight.\u00a0 \u201cThe adult world and high school has corrupted them, and they\u2019re damaged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the play\u2019s characters are based on the Peanuts gang, McKnight playwright Bert V. Royal simply uses them to address the world of high school today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Royal\u2019s brilliance is nobody escapes adolescence undamaged, particularly now,\u201d McKnight said.\u00a0 \u201cI think Euripides did the same thing for the Greeks, (but) he didn\u2019t do it with as many f-bombs.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the R-rated parody\u2019s storylines focuses on a blossoming romance between CB, a Charlie Brown character played by Steven Brotherton, and Beethoven, a Schroder character played by Corey Schall.\u00a0 Their relationship causes conflict because they haven\u2019t been taught how to communicate, according to McKnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re dreadfully mean to each other, but that\u2019s what high school is,\u201d McKnight said.\u00a0 \u201cI think that\u2019s what America is\u2026 Americans don\u2019t know how to treat anybody with respect anymore. All they know how to do is cut down their friends and cut harder at their enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that\u2019s what they see their parents doing, then that\u2019s what high school is,\u201d he added.\u00a0 \u201cIt has become about destroying the people and the relationships around you rather than embracing (them).\u201d<\/p>\n
Everything\u2014cast, props, stagehands and audience\u2014will be on the stage, according to McKnight. The background will take up one side of an imaginary square on stage, the audience will take up the other three and the play will take place in the middle, a technique known as a three-quarter black box.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something communal about a black box that\u2019s very different from other kinds (of theatre),\u201d McKnight said.\u00a0 \u201cThematically there\u2019s something about that intimacy.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very intimate script.\u00a0 It really gets at you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of the limited seating, McKnight recommends getting tickets early.\u00a0 He believes the play will be well received when it debuts on May 7, but he knows not everyone will enjoy it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end, if you hate it, if you have this strong reaction to it, the playwright wins,\u201d McKnight said.\u00a0 \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if you like it or not.\u00a0 If you have a reaction to it, that\u2019s the purpose of art, so the artist wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tickets can be purchased online here<\/a>.\u00a0 For more ways to purchase tickets, visit the Theatre Department online<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What would happen to the Peanuts gang if they were in high school today?\u00a0 \u201cDog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead\u201d uses this question to explore issues of adolescence, including sexuality, drugs, language and a blockhead\u2019s place in the world. \u201cWe know those characters, we know those friendships, but they\u2019re not healthy anymore,\u201d said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1154,1153,1976,1155,427,424],"class_list":["post-4794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-charlie-brown","tag-dog-sees-god","tag-meagan-ewton","tag-peanuts","tag-play","tag-theatre"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-1fk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4794"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4801,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4794\/revisions\/4801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}