The department of theatre arts and music is getting ready for its next on-stage work, featuring the works of James Joyce.

The musical, titled “James Joyce’s The Dead”, will start its first showing at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Black Box Theatre in the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

The performances through Saturday will all take place at 7:30 p.m. while the final performance on Sunday will start at 2 p.m.

Jean Wolski, a professor in the theatre arts department, is directing the musical.

“The play is based on a short story by James Joyce from his collection of short stories called ‘The Dubliners’ and it’s the last story in that collection. The title of the story is ‘The Dead’,” Wolski said. “It takes place in Dublin in 1904 and it is at the annual Christmas party of these two older ladies and their niece, all three of them are music teachers and it is a party the three of them throw every single year.”

Unlike like “Gideon’s Knot”, which occurred earlier this semester, Wolski said preparing for a musical requires a bit more preparation.

“Preparing for a musical is a different ball game altogether,” Wolski said. “With a musical, you have the added element of learning the songs from the show, coaching the musicians, we have an orchestra that we added in (Monday) night, there’s choreography that goes into the show. It’s a more extensive process in terms of the rehearsals themselves.”

Wolski said she is working with a large mix of students, ranging from theatre majors to music majors.

“We have students involved in all levels of it. We’ve got a mix of students that are in the cast, they’re not all theatre majors,” Wolski said. “Auditions are open to everybody, so we got a great mix of students there. I’ve got a lot of people whose this is their first time doing a show with us, so that’s been a lot of fun to work with.”

Auditions for the musical were held at the beginning of the fall semester.

“It is, with the guidance of faculty, a student-run production,” Wolski said. “We have not done another James Joyce piece before.”

Tickets for the performance are $5 for students, $12 for general admission, and $10 for faculty and seniors.

Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or lpmartinez@eiu.edu