Quinnipiac University students to perform ‘Bulgaria! Revolt!’

HAMDEN - The Quinnipiac University Theater program will present “Bulgaria! Revolt!,” a new folk-rock musical, at Quinnipiac’s Theatre Arts Center, 515 Sherman Ave., March 3-5.

Performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 3; 2 and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 4; and 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 5.

Director Elizabeth Dinkova, playwright Miranda Rose Hall and composer Michael Costagliola created “Bulgaria! Revolt!” A fantasia based on real historical events, this musical begins in 1925, with the jaded Bulgarian poet Geo Milev (Frank Scott of Montvale, N.J.) on the eve of his disappearance. He has written a poem to commemorate a failed peasant revolution and his people’s deaths at the hands of the government, but what is a poem good for?

When the devil (Alexa Hartman of Oakdale) bursts into his home and tempts him to surrender the poem, the poet and his wife, the idealistic actress Mila, (Kristen Daly of Little Falls, N.J.) join this mischievous master of ceremonies on a wild ride through a Bulgarian village on the eve of an uprising and an American meat factory on the brink of unionizing to ask: Can an artistic act have political significance? Can revolution heal a destitute reality, or is it always doomed to end in bloodshed and corruption?

Quinnipiac Theater is producing this musical to both ask and answer questions such as “What is revolution? What is its cost? What is the role of the artist in a time of political crisis? Can one person, or one small nation, change the tide of history?”

“We hope to find opportunities to tackle these questions in partnership with organizations committed to ambitious, ground-breaking original work that illuminates the concerns of our time,” said Theater Program Director Abigail Copeland.

Added Dinkova, “Cultural communication and historical perspective are more important now than ever, and we dream of cultivating work that forces audiences to interrogate their reality and take a stand against tyranny and hopelessness.”


The cast also includes: Stephen Russo of Red Bank, N.J.; Skye McCashion of Halfmoon, N.Y.; Rebekah Ferguson of East Stroudsburg, Pa.; David Desrocher of Ellington; Theresa Cusson of Southington; Ashley Yanoff of Stoughton, Mass.; and Tobias Adams of Ellington.

Amari O’Connor of Springfield, Mass. is serving as assistant director and associate dramaturg; Cortney Hannula of Melrose, Mass., is the associate lighting designer; Emma Poirier of Barre, Vt. and Olivia Dempson of Brookfield are the stage managers; and Rebekah Ferguson of East Stroudsburg, Pa., is overseeing publicity and poster design.

Tickets are $20 for general admission and $10 for those with a Quinnipiac ID. For tickets, visit theater.qu.edu.