LOUISVILLE, Ky. – “Plays: A Play,” an original play written by students, will be performed by the University of Louisville’s Department of Theatre Arts April 18 – 22.
The play, based on conversations with local sports fans and players, dramatizes a journey through the “sports universe” as characters in the play search for someone to help them win a high-stakes game to save a university from a malevolent corporate sponsor.
The play will be performed at 8 p.m. on April 18, 19, 20 and 22 and at 3 p.m. on April 21-22. There will not be an 8 p.m. show on Saturday evening, April 21. All performances are at the Thrust Theatre, 2314 S. Floyd St.
Directed by Amy Steiger—a theater professor who taught the students who wrote the play in their ensemble performance and community-based arts class last spring—the play features a team of actors who encounter characters such as Big Sweety, a corporate ogre, Lady Sugah, a pop star, and Bradyman, a superhero version of Tom Brady, in a struggle over the future of the university. To save the university, the cast of “players” must learn how to compete in a game they do not know how to play.
According to Steiger, the students decided on the sports theme as topical, affecting many in the community as well as in the university. The play took shape from their interviews with sports fans at UofL and from around the city.
“Theater is a social force.” Steiger said. “Community-based plays create civic engagement and connect the arts and the public around areas of common interest.
“The situations came out of improvisations based on what the community said and most of the dialogue is composed of either paraphrases or direct quotations from interviewees,” Steiger said.
Show tickets are $12 for the general public, $10 for faculty and staff and $8 for students and senior citizens. For tickets and information, call 502-852-6814 or visit louisville.edu/theatrearts/.