Students from the Shackoul’s Honors College will perform Plautus’ comedy “Pot of Gold” next Tuesday and Wednesday.
The play is part of Classical Week laying the foundation for classical lectures to come later in the week.
The director of the play, Mississippi State University’s Donna Clevinger, said she cannot wait to see the cast’s hard work pay off in their performances next week.
“I adore the students,” Clevinger said, “I enjoy watching them grow into the characters that these authors wrote about thousands of years ago.”
The play is about a man obsessing over a pot of gold he keeps secret from others.
Cast members said they have enjoyed preparing for the play as much as Clevinger.
Freshman student Alex Ward, who will play a servant, said his favorite part of being in the show is the “camaraderie of the cast.”
“At the beginning of the play we were all strangers, but as the play has gone on we have gotten closer and friendlier to each other,” Ward said. “We constantly joke around whenever we are off-stage during practice. There is never a dull moment.”
Blake Waldrip, who will play Megadorus, said his favorite part of the show is the dramatic irony throughout.
“It makes for a pretty humorous interaction,” Waldrip said.
Clevinger said the cast consists of almost all freshman and  STEM majors, something she said has not happened before.
The play will take place next Tuesday and Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. in the Zacharias Village Courtyard.
Audiences are invited to bring dinner and a chair to the show. In case of rain, the performances will be moved inside of Griffis Hall.
Following the play on Thursday, there will be a lecture in Griffis Hall entitled “Laughing with the Romans: Plautus Onstage” given by Cornell University’s Michael Fontaine, Washington University in St. Louis’s Timothy Moore and MSU’s own Salvador Bartera.
The lecture will be held in 401-C Griffis Hall at 2 p.m. next Thursday.