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The Inspector General"
A 25-member cast of Concordia students performed an adaptation of "The Inspector General" in Weller auditorium Oct. 26-28. Nickolai Gogol’s original play, set in a remote Russian village in the 1800s, was adapted by Dr. Mira Wiegmann so that the setting is present day Washington D.C. Wiegmann, director of drama at Concordia, rediscovered Gogol’s 1836 play after seeing an adaptation of it set in Baghdad at the last Kennedy Center American College Region V Festival.
"This caused me to reread the play and adapt it for current national political figures and events that parallel those in Gogol’s play," said Wiegmann. "I am a daily newspaper reader and I was struck by how frequently issues in Gogol’s play matched news accounts." In the adaptation, village officials from the original play become national office holders, and the supposed inspector comes from a remote region. The adaptation includes characters with names ending with "ski" based on contemporary political officials, modern events and cultural references. Weigmann spent several weeks last summer writing the adaptation, and held a reading with faculty and students in July to help revise the dialogue.
"It’s really neat to be able to perform something that Dr. Wiegmann put so much time and energy into in order to make it contemporary," said Adam Hengeveld, a junior from Iowa playing the part of Khelestavkov. "The audience and actors can better relate to the ideas, making the experience more enjoyable."
Gogol’s original play was censored by Russian government officials, and was produced only after intervention by Czar Nicholaus I.
"As with any political satire, it is important for the audience to understand the purpose of the comedy," comments Andrew Schultz, a junior from Texas playing Cheneski, a principal actor in the cast. "It is by no means our interpretation of how we think government officials act. It's our exaggeration of and creativity with human attributes and flaws."
Truman State won the MIAA conference last week and tonight began regional playoffs
on their home turf. A record setting first game and an NCAA tie for # of serves in a row...read on:
Truman Athletic News
Record Night in Pershing as Bulldogs Roll
Nov. 15, 2007 - Freshman libero Casey Bruno was the catalyst behind a school record-setting 17-0 first-game run as the No. 4 Bulldog volleyball team kicked off the 2007 postseason with style, beating the 8th-seeded Albany (Ga.) State 3-0 (-6, -18, -14) Thursday night. Truman hit .519 (50-8-81) and finished with 15 service aces en route to a second-round match with 4th-seeded Emporia State.
The first-game run, led by Bruno's serving, started off an Erin Hattey kill to make the score 7-4. Seven service aces, four Eli Medina kills and a handful of Rams hitting errors later, Truman held a 23-4 lead and a tie with a 2003 NCAA Division II record for consecutive service points.
The easy win gave Truman a chance to rest many of its starters for the second round - set to pit the Bulldogs and ESU Hornets against each other for the third straight weekend. Truman has held the advantage in both matches so far, winning each by 3-1 scores.
Freshman Allison Barker led the Bulldogs with nine kills as 11 squad members tallied at least one kill. Senior setter Amanda Holliday led sophomore Krysta Tholen and freshman Ashley Petak in the double-digit assists category, while three Truman players finished with a team-high five digs.
Albany State (21-15), placed in the tournament after securing the automatic bid from the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, hit .105 for the night and had three team blocks.
The Bulldogs (35-5) will be one of four MIAA teams in the regional semifinals tomorrow night, as 6th-seeded Central Missouri takes on 2nd-seeded Washburn in Friday's 4:30 match, before the top-seeded 'Dogs play the 4th-seeded Hornets at 7:00 p.m. Please see the South Central Regional page on the front of gobulldogs.truman.edu. | 
