"Our Country's Good" Opens in Westhoff Theatre April 3

Timberlake Wertenbaker's "Our Country's Good," a play that is "intensely dark at times, intensely funny at others" according to the director, will be presented at Illinois State University's Westhoff Theatre from April 3 to 10.

Tickets for performances at 7:30 p.m. April 3, 4 and 7 to 10 plus a 2 p.m. April 4 matinee, are $10 for the general public and $8 for senior citizens and students.  They are available at the Center for the Performing Arts box office from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, by phone at (309) 438-2535 or at ticketmaster.com

Director Mark Baer is a master of fine arts degree candidate in the School of Theatre but has been a professional actor, director and producer for more than 10 years before deciding to pursue an advanced degree.  He spent three seasons as the managing director of the St. Croix Festival Theatre in Wisconsin.  His thesis production next fall will be the musical "Into the Woods."

In "Our Country's Good," a young married lieutenant in Australia in 1789 is directing rehearsals of the first play ever to be staged in the country. With only two copies of the text, a cast of convicts and one leading lady who may be about to be hanged, conditions are hardly ideal.