Joe Calarco, Wayne State University theatre department professor, is the winner of the 2002 Humbolt State University New Play Award for his play Beethoven is... The play has also been selected to be read as part of the New Play Reading Series at Oberon Theatre in New York. Calarco is a graduate of Columbia University (BA and MA) and University of Minnesota (PhD). His publications include the book Tragic Being: Apollo and Dionysus in Western Drama, ranked one of the principle theories of tragedy in Tragedy and Tragic Tl~eory: An Analytical Guide, and numerous articles. Dr. Calarco has directed more than 60 theatrical productions nationally, including off-Broadway, and has served on the staff of the New York Shakespeare Festival. He has received a Detroit Free Press Theatre Achievement Award.

Calarco describes the Beethoven as "a drama of classical scope and power, a tale of redemption through suffering. This is the story of a man who at the height of his achievements loses everything- the acclaim of his contemporaries, the love of women and his family, and even the gift of hearing. Yet his life, like his music, is illuminated by laughter and the refusal to bow to fate".

The two-act play, being produced at Humbolt State University's Van Duzer Theatre, opens with charges brought against Beethoven by a faceless court - including the accusation that he stole the name of his brother, who died a year before he was born. It then proceeds to interrogate the "witnesses" including Beethoven's family, friends, audiences and enemies, to present a mosaic of insights into the artist and the man. Director Kevin Crow explains the production as "a tribute to a man who had a divinely inspired connection to his art, and whose own life is an example of how great beauty can come from extreme struggle and isolation. It is Beethoven's loneliness that lies at the heart of this production. This is the story of a man isolated by his inability to hear while all around him thrived the beautiful sounds he himself created."

For more information on Humbolt State University's production of Beethoven is.... contact Kevin Crowe at (707) 825 - 7008. For more information about playwright Joe Calarco contact Wayne State Theater Public Relations Office at (313) 577-5126.