Preview of ‘Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show'

Press release

HAMDEN, Conn. – Quinnipiac University Theater will present, “Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show,” on Oct. 25, 26, 27 and 31 and Nov. 1 and 2.
The rock musical, based on Mikhail Bulgakov’s banned classic “The Master and Margarita,” will take place at the Theatre Arts Center, 515 Sherman Ave.
“It's especially meaningful to return to Quinnipiac's theater program for the third time with a brand-new show celebrating dissident art and the importance of speaking the truth even when it's dangerous,” said Director Elizabeth Dinkova. “Part rock concert, part musical, this show brings together a band of demons, a pair of star-crossed lovers, and a radical retelling of the Pontius Pilate story in a celebration of the power of art and love to change the world.”
Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show takes inspiration from the courageous resistance of dissident artists like Pussy Riot to explore the potency and peril of speaking truth to power, the relationship between good and evil, and the freedom of the spirit in an unfree world.
Abigail Copeland, assistant teaching professor in the theater program, is the musical’s set designer.
“The cast and crew have embraced this new musical and have been working hard for the last several weeks to bring this magical and poignant story to the Quinnipiac University stage,” she said, adding that students have been working alongside creator, Michael Pemberton, to develop over 20 new rock-musical songs “that run the gamut of emotion from the deepest longing to psychological terror.”
“Audiences will find there is something for everyone in this exciting musical world of demons, tricks, treats, talking cats and love,” Copeland added.
In 1930s Moscow, the Master—an idealistic writer—is silenced and detained in an asylum. Margarita, his collaborator and lover, embarks on a quest through heaven and hell to save him and his manuscript.
The guides are Satan himself (in the guise of a mysterious gentleman-magician named Professor Woland) and his retinue of demonic rock musicians who aim to wreak havoc on a society filled with corrupt social climbers, bureaucrats and profiteers.
Tickets for the all-ages show are $25 ($10 for Quinnipiac students) and available by clicking here. Show times are:

• Friday, Oct. 25 at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 26 at 2 and 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, Oct. 27 at 2 p.m.
• Thursday, Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m.