GROVE CITY, PA. - The Grove City College theater staff is preparing for its first production of the 2009-10 academic year. “Polarities: Honor and Dishonor in the Arctic” will be performed in the Little Theater of the Pew Fine Arts Center, Sept. 24-26 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are free and can be obtained at the theater table in the Breen Student Union, by calling the theater ticket line at (724) 458-3331, or by requesting them via email at theatertickets@gcc.edu.

The play recounts the adventures of Pittsburgh doctor Dr. John Goodsell, who served as surgeon to Commander Robert Peary on his famous trip to the North Pole in 1908-09. The play is based largely on Goodsell’s diaries but draws heavily on the historical records of others on the trip. Some of Dr. Goodsell’s 100-year-old photographs will be shown during the course of the play.

The play, written by retired history teacher Cliff Brown, was commissioned by the Mercer County Historical Society in 2008 – the 100th anniversary of the departure. Goodsell spent the latter years of his life in Sandy Lake, Mercer County. His diaries and Arctic memorabilia are on display at the Society’s main office in Mercer.

Brown has offered the following synopsis of the play:

In 1908, Dr. John Goodsell, expedition doctor for Robert E. Peary, leaves New York on what becomes the most controversial polar expedition of all time. The voyage brings him in contact with the world of the Eskimos − a world of extremities and uncertainties. On his return to America he finds that Peary’s claim to have reached the Pole is open to question, and he finds Peary’s disregard for those who went with him increasingly intolerable. The only one he can count on throughout the tensions of the ensuing years is Captain Bob Bartlett. When he and Bartlett reconnect in later years the trip is re-lived and Goodsell is able to face the issue of Peary’s duplicity and find a degree of closure. 

Further information can be obtained from Megan Markley (markleyme1@gcc.edu) – public relations officer for the show, or from Cliff Brown (cfbrown@gcc.edu, (724) 992-0552).