R.U.R | Past Productions | School of Theatre & Dance | College of The Arts

TheatreUSF presents R.U.R.

R.U.R.

By Karel Capek
Spring 2012

Directed by Marc Powers
Scenic Design: Steven Mitchell
Costume Design: Marilyn Gaspardo Bertch
Lighting Design: Beau Edwardson
Sound Design: Jamey Feshold
Video Direction and Editing: Nikole Bird

A man leans against a table as he speaks with another man, both have their right arms extended and both wear suits and leather shoes. In the background, five other people watch their conversation.

A woman crouches behind another person and clings onto them, a defiant expression on their face as a man squats to meet her at eye level and points at her, seeming to intimidate her.

A woman doctor uses a stethoscope to check the heart rate of a man.

A man and a woman dance a slow number together.

Come and join us at Rossum's Universal Robots – where everyone is polite and smart and perfect in every way – not to mention the product of bioengineering.

See the play that birthed the word "robot." Karel Capek's R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) imaginatively takes you into a strange robot-making factory - where the profits for the sale of robot workers are enormous and the robots outnumber the humans by hundreds. Rossum scientists bioengineer robots that look and act more and more human with each new version. What makes us human? Our brain, our creativity, our soul? This is the question that the humans on Rossum's Island argue as they develop and improve upon the ultimate workforce. And in the answer lies the fate of the future of the world.