PAD to present world premiere of civil disobedience, new drama by Carter Lewis, Feb. 23 to March 4

Conservative versus liberal, political versus personal, father versus daughter. Such are the forces at play in civil disobedience, a world premiere drama by Carter Lewis, playwright-in-residence in Washington University’s Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences.

The PAD will present civil disobedience at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 23 and 24, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25, in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre. Performances continue the following weekend, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 2 and 3, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 4.

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 A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call (314) 935-6543.

Commissioned by the PAD, civil disobedience centers on the relationship between Fred, a conservative justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Court, and his daughter Marlee, a social activist and Manhattan bookstore owner. When Fred steps down from the bench, following the sudden death of his wife, Marlee is tasked with driving him to reluctant retirement in the liberal bastion of California. Along the way, the pair encounters a cross-section of modern-day America — a cheerful drug dealer, a downsized company man and a World Trade Center grief counselor who’s brother is serving in Iraq.

“The political climate has a way of coming out on the page,” Lewis muses. “I was around in the 1960s and I observed the student unrest over Vietnam. Today we’re in a situation that has a lot of similarities but also some differences. I’m interested in how things have changed, and how our attitudes, our government and social structures effect the way we dissent.”

Of course, for the artist, mixing art and politics can be a tricky business. “The danger is that the play becomes a polemic rather than a reflection of how issues really affect people’s lives,” Lewis says. “You have to focus on behavior rather than ideology.”

Director Andrea Urice, senior lecturer in the PAD, adds that, “Polemics have a short shelf-life. Once their particular issue is gone, those plays are done. I think the most politically potent writers — Shakespeare, Kushner — last because they speak universally. You can be motivated by a specific event but what makes it more than just of-the-moment is how you frame things.”

civil disobedience marks the fourth collaboration between Lewis and Urice, who first teamed up in 2002 for American Storm, a horseracing tale set against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 2004 they debuted Kid Peculiar at the Coral Court Motel, an homage of sorts to the notorious St. Louis motor inn, and last October premiered Ordinary Nation, a story of poker, politics and family, at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.

Indeed, civil disobedience and Ordinary Nation are in many ways companion pieces. Written simultaneously, they’re both influenced by contemporary events and explore the intersection of politics and family.

“Ordinary Nation is about how large national currents ripple through the smaller, more intimate politics of a particular family,” Lewis says. “civil disobedience is a road play. There’s a lot of story, a lot of plot stuff. It almost has the structure of a mystery, with buried elements that eventually come to the surface.”

Stylistically, however, the two plays could not be more different.

“Ordinary Nation unfolds through a series of very realistic scenes,” Urice explains. “civil disobedience has a kind of heightened theatricality. Actors play multiple roles, characters address the audience, a single set serves as car, café, Boston train station and Missouri camping store. There’s a much greater level of abstraction.”

The four-member cast is led by senior Lauren Dusek as Marlee and James Anthony, a St. Louis Equity actor and guest artist in the PAD, as Fred. Sharing the remaining seven roles are sophomore Justin Joseph and junior Noga Landau.

Costumes are by Bonnie Kruger, senior lecturer and coordinator of the PAD’s Design & Technical Theatre Program. Set design is by Justin Barisonek, a 2002 PAD alumnus and technical director for Saint Louis University. Lighting design is by senior Derek Dohler. Sound design is by Chris Wilson, a 2006 PAD alumnus.