LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- It's a rare opportunity when the education of business and fine art can become interdependent within a single medium. Rider University has found a way to combine the two through the final production of the 1998-99 theatre season, Other People's Money.

The show will be staged on two successive Friday and Saturday evenings -- April 16-17 and April 23-24 -- in the Fine Arts Theatre on Rider's Lawrenceville campus. The curtain rises at 8 p.m. for each show, which is recommended for mature audiences due to language and sexual allusion.

A production by renowned playwright Jerry Sterner, Other People's Money enjoyed a successful off-Broadway run in the late 1980's and gained further notoriety as a major motion picture starring Danny DeVito. The show concerns the hostile takeover of a not-unprofitable yet obsolete Rhode Island family business, New England Wire and Cable, which provides employment for the entire population of the small town setting. When the company's product becomes superseded by new technologies, corporate takeover artist Lawrence Garfinkle, otherwise known as "Larry the Liquidator," moves in for the kill.

The company is run by Andrew Jorgenson, who has an adoring right hand in Bea Sullivan and a not-so-trusty left hand in William Coles, who hopes to eventually succeed Jorgenson at the top of the corporate ladder. Also involved in the plot is Sullivan's lawyer daughter, Kate, to whom Jorgenson turns for assistance. The fast-paced interaction between these five characters provides the dark comedy that touches on a variety of business, moral, and ethical values, climaxing in a public war of speeches between Jorgenson and Garfinkle that allows the townspeople and the audience to reach their own conclusions in the clash between community and Wall Street cannibalism.

Dr. Patrick Chmel, professor of fine arts and veteran of several Rider University theatre productions, will direct the talented cast of five. He points to the fact that the reality of the play provides tangible lessons for business professors and students hoping to pursue business careers, and notes that Rider's College of Business Administration played a key advising role in the production process.

"This is an ideal play for an educational environment in which business is such an important component," said Dr. Chmel, who has also directed productions of Love Rides the Rails, Hair, Little Shop of Horrors, Pippen, The Water Engine, The Elephant Man, and Godspell. "You are watching modern day Wall Street corporate takeovers at play, and hear all the real pros and cons from the actors.

"The play represents the callousness of the time, and of money," he added. "It really humanizes the issues, and provides a fast-paced, adrenaline rush through the constant exchange of not only the actors, but also the audience."

According to Chmel, by the end of the show the audience may find that they have reexamined their preconceptions and discovered a surprisingly different way of looking at the issues presented in the play.

Admission is $10 to the general public and $5 for faculty, staff, and students. A special preview performance is scheduled for Thursday, April 15, at 7 p.m., with tickets only available at the door for $4. Advance ticket information for all regular showings can be obtained by calling (609) 896-5303.

This production is recognized as part of the University Theme Program, "2001: To the Millennium and Beyond." The program is designed create unity and common purpose in Rider's academic and student life and to prepare students for their future after graduation.

Rider University is located five miles south of Princeton and three miles north of Trenton on Route 206 in Lawrence Township, NJ. The campus is one-half mile south of exit 7A of Interstate 95.