Local resident featured in Macalester College’s production of “Pentecost”

November 09, 2002
Santa Paula News
Peter Krause, a Macalester College sophomore, is featured in David Edgar’s timely and compelling play, “Pentecost,” performed November 8-16 at Macalester in St. Paul, Minnesota. Krause is the son of Mary Ann and Karl Krause of Santa Paula and is a 2001 graduate of Santa Paula High School. “‘Pentecost’ is political theater at its best, full of gripping human drama as well as intellectually challenging ideas,” says David McCandless, director of the Macalester production. Issues of national identity, the value of art, the power and uses of language, and the fear of “the other” all collide in this rich and provocative parable of our times. “Pentecost” was written in the early 90s, when hopes for an outbreak of democracy in post-Communist Eastern Europe gave way to a nightmare of nationalism, xenophobia and civil war.The play centers on a group of armed and desperate refugees, representing diverse countries and speaking multiple languages, who take over a run-down church in an unnamed southeast European country whose tightly policed borders they have managed to penetrate. The church contains what could well be a priceless work of art. The refugees threaten to destroy it and kill the three art historians they have taken hostage, if their demands for asylum and work permits are not met.“In the aftermath of September 11, Edgar’s courageous, compassionate interrogation of ideas of international community seems especially pertinent,” says McCandless, a Twin Cities director and scholar. “Although the play is, in many respects, a tragedy, Edgar offers a potentially heartening vision, in keeping with the play’s title, of the interconnectedness of all cultures.”David Edgar is a prolific, acclaimed British playwright best known for his Tony-award-winning adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Nicholas Nickleby,” which the Royal Shakespeare Company made into a huge hit in the early 80s. Edgar’s newest work, “Continental Divide,” a two-play cycle about American politics, will premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on February 22, 2003.
Macalester College is a private liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 1,810 students. Macalester is internationally recognized for its commitment to educational excellence, internationalism, diversity and service to society.



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