VGCC Drama students present “Waiting for Godot”


From left, VGCC students Jordan Bunting (as “Estragon”) and Spencer Nunn (as “Vladimir”) strike their characters’ “waiting” poses outside on the college campus. (VGCC photo)

From left, VGCC students Jordan Bunting (as “Estragon”) and Spencer Nunn (as “Vladimir”) strike their characters’ “waiting” poses outside on the college campus. (VGCC photo)

Vance-Granville Community College Drama students will present a production of the Samuel Beckett classic, “Waiting for Godot,” on campus, Nov. 6-9. Performances begin on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Nov. 7, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 8, at 2 p.m. and at 7:30 p.m.; and on Sunday, Nov. 9, at 2 p.m. All performances are in the small auditorium in Building 2 on the college’s Main Campus in Henderson.

The play centers on two wandering tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, who wait by a lonely tree to meet up with Mr. Godot, an enigmatic figure in a world where time, place and memory are blurred and meaning is where you find it. The tramps hope that Godot will change their lives for the better. Instead, two eccentric travelers arrive, one man on the end of the other’s rope. The results are both funny and dangerous in this existential masterpiece.

Waiting for Godot” premiered on January 5, 1953, in Paris. Beckett translated his original French play into English, and it has gone on to be performed around the world, including several times on Broadway. The play was also adapted for British and American television. Early critics called it “a mystery wrapped in an enigma” and “a witty and poetic conundrum.” In 1999, “Waiting for Godot” was voted the most significant English-language play of the 20th century in a British Royal National Theatre poll.

The VGCC cast includes Spencer Nunn of Warrenton as “Vladimir,” Jordan Bunting of Macon as “Estragon,” Morgan McFalls of Oxford as “Lucky,” Mark Tillotson of Oxford as “Pozzo,” and Ben Shelton of Creedmoor as “a boy.” Shelton is a seventh-grader at Falls Lake Academy. The other actors are all VGCC students and all veterans of the successful dinner theater production of “An Inspector Calls” earlier this year.

Betsy Henderson, the VGCC Theatre Arts/speech instructor and department chair of Fine Arts and Humanities, directs the play.

Admission is $10 for the general public, and $5 for students and VGCC employees. Tickets may be purchased at the door, but attendees are encouraged to secure their seats by making reservations. For more information and to reserve seats, contact Betsy Henderson at hendersonb@vgcc.edu or (252) 738-3371.