National Players Double Bill at Embry-Riddle

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National Players to Present Orwell and Shakespeare Double Bill at Embry-Riddle

Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 2, 2009 -- The popular National Players acting company returns to Embry-Riddle in February for two performances sponsored by the University’s Arts & Letters Series.

On Monday, Feb. 9, they will present a stage adaptation of George Orwell’s grim novel, 1984. In this modern classic about “negative utopia,” a civil servant named Winston Smith grows disillusioned with his assigned task of falsifying records and political literature and rebels against the nightmarish totalitarian world dominated by Big Brother and his vast network of agents.

The following day, Tuesday, Feb. 10, the troupe will present William Shakespeare’s As You Like It. In this pastoral comedy, Rosalind flees to a forest after her uncle banishes her from court. Here she meets a whimsical group of woodland characters, including Orlando, the man she loves. In the joyful conclusion, identities are revealed, brothers are reconciled, and romantic happiness triumphs.

Both performances are scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Miller Instructional Center auditorium on Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach campus, 600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd. Admission is $5 at the door; free to students with Embry-Riddle ID.

National Players is America’s longest-running classical touring company, having presented 6,600 performances and workshops in 35 states over the course of 58 years. The troupe has also toured Europe, Asia, and the Middle East entertaining U.S. military forces. In appreciation for outstanding service, National Players has been honored at five White House receptions.

Among its other accolades, the company has received the Golden Quill: the Sir John Gielgud Award for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts, presented by the Shakespeare Guild.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering, educating more than 34,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs. Doctoral programs in aviation and in engineering physics are pending approval by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for the University to offer programs at the doctoral level. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 130 campus centers in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu.