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The theater season begins in dramatic style Sept. 3-6 when ���ϰٿ� hosts a mini festival featuring several ���ϰٿ� professors and alumni performing work developed by artists in a variety of indoor locations around campus.

The festival opens with “The Lover,” written by Harold Pinter and directed by Lauren Hall ’14, on Thursday, Sept. 3, at 7 p.m. and Sept. 5-6 at 4 p.m., in the Black Box Theater at ���ϰٿ�.

“Poor, Poor Lear,” written by Katya Krohn and Nina Sallinen, will be Sept. 3 at 8 p.m. and Sept. 5-6 at 2 p.m. Audience members are asked to meet at Porter Theatre where they will be escorted to the performing space.

“The Cherry Orchard,” written by Anton Chekhov and directed by John Blondell, returns to ���ϰٿ� after first being performed in 2014. Performances are Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 5-6, at 7 p.m. in Porter Theatre.

Individual tickets, which may be purchased at , cost $17 for general admission and $14 for students and seniors. To purchase an all-three-shows pass for a discounted price ($45 general admission/$36 for students and seniors), please call (805) 565-7040.

“What a thrilling way to inaugurate a new season of theater at ���ϰٿ�,” Blondell says.

In “The Lover,” Sarah (Paige Tautz ’14) and Richard are married, completely in love and unfaithful to each other “two or three times a week with great regularity.” Harold Pinter’s witty one act dances with the ideas of love, commitment, fantasy and control with both delicacy and irreverence.

In the strikingly original dark comedy, “Poor, Poor Lear,” Finnish actress Nina Sallinen portrays a 90-year-old theatrical grande dame who brazenly chooses King Lear for her farewell performance. The aging actress unintentionally highlights her own life story while gradually becoming cognizant of the parallels between her life and Lear’s.

In “The Cherry Orchard,” Lyubov Andreevna returns from Paris to find that the family estate is in arrears and must be sold. This was Chekhov’s last play and is a modern masterpiece.