What happens in Naples, stays in Naples. It’s Carnival time in the Italian port town, and two sisters from Spain hit the streets: one hoping to marry her true love, and the other looking for a man (any man) and a way out of the nunnery. Enter a band of roving English cavaliers and let the games begin, in this Restoration comedy by Aphra Behn, the first female professional writer of the English language.

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Join us for a staged reading of The Rover -- a new adaptation-in-progress -- by Kathryn Walat, directed by Ryan Garbayo, and featuring performers from the UAlbany Theatre Program. A Q&A will follow, led by Richard Barney of UAlbany’s English Department.

Free and open to the public

Note: Marcus Gardley, previously scheduled for this event, is unable to attend due to to a scheduling conflict.

About The Rover, written by Aphra Behn and premiered in 1677

It's Spain, during carnival, and anything can and does happen. Two Spanish sisters don masks and take to the streets, one to reunite with her true love, the other to find a man and evade her fate at the nunnery. Enter a trio of English rakes looking for kicks, and we get raucous and raunchy Restoration comedy at its best. From the pen of the first professional female playwright comes a play that challenges 17th-century notions of marriage, while asking timeless questions of sexual politics. How far will women go, to follow their hearts' desire? And just how badly can men behave, before they have to put a ring on it?

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About Authors Theatre

Featuring staged readings of original plays-in-progress or adaptations, Authors Theatre is designed to focus on dramatic writing as literary text and to provide a mechanism to assist playwrights in the creation of new work.

Presented by the UAlbany Theatre Program and the Jarka and Grayce Burian Endowment in collaboration with the NYS Writers Institute.