Eastern Connecticut State University Student from Rocky Hill Helps to Showcase New Theater

WILLIMANTIC, CT — Hannah Garrahy, an Eastern Connecticut State University student from Rocky Hill, helped christen Eastern's new Proscenium Theatre with an inaugural performance of Cervantes' famed "Pedro, The Great Pretender." It was the first major production of the university's theater program to take place in Eastern's new Fine Arts Instructional Center.

The play had a run from Nov. 8 to 13.

The classic play by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, a playwright of the Spanish Golden Age, follows the tricks of Pedro, a master pretender whose escapades involve him with a slew of characters and careers as he struggles to find his true vocation in life.

Garrahy, a member of the Class of 2019, majors in Theater and communication with concentrations in acting and broadcasting. In "Pedro," Garrahy played Marisol, the queen's gentlewoman.

"The rehearsal process was challenging because there were many long nights. But it was all worth it when I finally saw the finished product. I found different ways to do things and reacted differently each night. I would do it all again," Garrahy said.

"Our first production in our new Proscenium Theatre hopes to honor Cervantes' timeless subversive satire by connecting the centuries of his day and ours," said Ellen Faith Brodie, director and theater professor at Eastern. "The costumes evoke the Spanish Golden Age paintings of Velasquez and his contemporaries. The scenic design was inspired by the 20th-century Spanish artist Jean Miro.

"Cervantes lives on in Pedro and we live on through the hopes and dreams of both the author and his creations," continued Brodie. "We are all Pedro: pretenders in many costumes wearing many masks and dreaming of a better life and a better world."

Photo Credit: Eastern Connecticut State University