Johnson's Witching Voice premieres at New Vic

Opening March 27th
At The New Vic Theatre
134 E. Vine Street, Kalamazoo, MI, 49007
In a season of memories, nostalgia, comedy and music....

WMU Professor and Chair Emeritus Arnold Johnston’s play had its world premiere at The New Vic in 1973 and returns, with Nate Melvin in the role of Robert Burns, not only to celebrate the publication of Johnston’s novel of the same title. but also in celebration of the 250th birthday of Scotland’s national poet.
This biographical drama covers the life of Scottish poet Robert Burns from 1785 to 1788, when he rose from poverty and obscurity as an Ayrshire farmer to nationwide acclaim and lionization by the aristocracy of Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital and a bastion of the European Enlightenment. Using a lively array of historical characters, the action captures the flavor of Burns’ work, his rich social and romantic life, his struggles to escape poverty, his frustration with a class system that set more store by ancestry than ability, and his bitterly comic encounters with moral and religious hypocrisy. The play is further enhanced by a liberal selection of Burns’ finest songs and poems.