Performing Arts Department to present Hickorydickory, new work by Marisa Wegrzyn, Sept. 29 to Oct. 8

From Tennessee Williams to Shepherd Mead and A.E. Hotchner, Washington University boasts a strong tradition of original drama. This year the Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences will celebrate that tradition with four original plays by alumni, faculty and students.

“This is a season of world premieres, works as daring in subject matter as they are formally innovative,” says Henry I. Schvey, Ph.D., professor and chair of the PAD. “I think audiences will find this to be some of the most dynamic and challenging art in St. Louis.”

The series begins Sept. 29 to Oct. 8 with Hickorydickory, a playful, magical-realist-style work by Marisa Wegrzyn, a 2003 alumnae. The series continues in February with Schvey’s own Kokoschka: A Love Story, about the relationship between the Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka and his mistress, Alma Mahler; and civil disobedience, a politically charged work by Carter Lewis, playwright-in-residence. The series concludes in March with Carolyn Kras’ Highness, a historical drama about Queen Elizabeth I that won the 2006 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition.

Hickorydickory tells the story of Cari Lee, a young woman whose “mortal clock,” a literal biological clock that tells the time and date of each individual’s death, has been permanently frozen, trapping her at the age of 17 — the same age as her daughter, Dale. Yet Dale has clock troubles of her own, even though her father, Jimmy (Cari’s ex-boyfriend) is now an expert clock smith.

“The play is a kind of fantasy about the delicate nature of family relationships,” said director William Whitaker, senior lecturer in drama. “What if we had such clocks? What if we could add more time, or take time from our own clocks and extend it to our loved ones?

“The idea of a ‘mortal clock’ sounds immensely outrageous,” adds Whitaker, who previously directed Wegrzyn’s Killing Women, a black comedy about an aspiring young hit-woman that won the Hotchner Competition in 2001. “And yet, once you’ve accepted the grammar of the show, it becomes a very moving and authentic metaphor.

“As a writer, Marisa finds these outrageous images, pushes them to extremes, then domesticates them, pulling them back together like a puzzle. In the end, her plays take place in a very ordinary world in which extraordinary things can happen.”

The five-member cast is led by senior Caroline Rau as Cari Lee, with junior Elizabeth Birkenmeier in the roles of Dale and young Kate. Also starring are junior Rosie Mandel as Kate and Helen; senior Robert McLemore III as Jimmy and Richard; and junior Kelly Riley as Rowan and young Jimmy.

Set design is by senior Lauren Dusek, with lighting design by senior Derek Dohler. Costumes are by Bonnie Kruger, senior lecturer in the PAD.

Wegrzyn, a native of Wilmette, IL, has already found considerable success in the theater. This summer, Chicago’s prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre debuted her The Butcher of Baraboo, a black comedy about a small town butcher with an ax to grind.

Her work also has been produced or read at Chicago Dramatists; Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY; Lucid by Proxy in Los Angeles; The Hourglass Group in Los Angeles; The Women’s Project in New York; Centerstage in Baltimore; and The Magic Theatre in San Francisco.

In addition to Killing Women, Wegrzyn won the Hotchner Competition in 2003 for the family drama Psalms of a Questionable Nature. A third play — Polar Bears on U.S. 41, about a young woman who communicated through alphabet soup — was runner-up in 2000.

Performances of Hickorydickory begin at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 29 and 30, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1, in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre. Performances continue 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Oct. 5 and 6, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8.

Tickets are $15 — $9 for students, senior citizens and Washington University faculty and staff — and are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office, (314) 935-6543, and all MetroTix outlets. The Hotchner Studio Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call (314) 935-6543.