LEXINGTON, Ky.—Lexington native Sully White is the guest director for Transylvania University Theater’s next offering, Rhinoceros, an absurdist comedy by Eugene Ionesco, and senior drama major Elizabeth Guy steps into dual roles as performer and assistant director. The play opens Thursday, February 18, in the Lucille C. Little Theater.
Ionesco’s play is a wild and wacky satire on our willingness to be led over the cliff. In the play, the townspeople of a village suddenly experience a rampaging rhinoceros, and though some questions its meaning, most blindly see it as inevitable, and even choose to join the herd.
Sullivan (Sully) Canaday White comes to Transylvania during her short-term break from Wofford College, where she has been on faculty since 2007. White spent five years as director of the Apprentice/Intern Company at Actors Theater of Louisville where she directed more than 50 shows including Proof, Fool for Love, and Reckless. She taught for several years at the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts, held on Transylvania’s campus,, and worked for the North Carolina Theater, where she designed a new Conservatory for Performing Arts. She has also worked in New York directing off-Broadway for the American Theater of Actors, New Georges, LaMaMa Experimental Theater of New York and the New York International Fringe Festival.
Guy, a drama major from Salina, Kansas, has portrayed Iphiginia in Earthrock of Argos, Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, Anna in Closer, Elmire in Tartuffe and Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in the past three and a half years. She was a rehearsal assistant for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Guy also played Mistress Ford in Actors Guild of Lexington’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. For Rhinoceros, Guy will portray the waitress and Madame Boeuf in addition to her role as assistant director.
“Having such a unique role in the production of Rhinoceros has been an incredible experience of growth for me,” said Guy. “As the assistant director I have learned new skills such as dramaturgy, blocking perspective, physical training techniques, how to build ensemble and how to put together a program. Also working as an actor under Sullivan White’s direction has given me a new perspective. Acting in this show has challenged me in the best way possible.”
The comedy runs Feb. 18-20 and 25-27 at 7:30 p.m., and Feb. 21 at 2 p.m. in the Lucille C. Little Theater. A colloquia on the play, the production and the theater of the absurd will begin immediately following the performances on Feb. 18 and 25. Tickets are $10 and may be reserved by calling the box office at (859) 281-3621. For more information, contact the fine arts office at (859) 233-8141.