University of the Ozarks Theatre will open its 96th season with Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tracy Letts' thriller "BUG" on Oct. 8-10.
The play will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 8 and 9 and at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10, in the Seay Theatre, located in the University’s Walton Fine Arts Center. Tickets for the play are $8 and can be purchased in advance at www.ozarks.edu/theatre or at the box office prior to the performance.
The play contains adult language, violence, drug use and partial nudity and is for mature audiences only.
The production of "BUG" will be the Arkansas premiere of the play and will be the University Theatre’s entry into the state American College Theatre Festival in October.
BUG is set in a seedy Oklahoma City motel room. Lonely cocktail waitress Agnes lives there, hiding from her violent ex-con ex-husband Jerry. One night, her lesbian biker friend R.C. introduces her to Peter, a Gulf War veteran who might be AWOL. She gets involved with Peter, who grows increasingly paranoid about the war in Iraq, UFOs, the Oklahoma City bombing, cult suicides, and then secret government experiments on soldiers - eventually drawing Agnes into his delusions. The play deals with the issues of love, paranoia, conspiracy theories, and Agnes’ slow descent into insanity under Peter’s influence.
The Associated Press called "BUG" "…[a] thoroughly outrageous and thoroughly entertaining play…the possibility of enemies, real and imagined, to squash has never been more theatrical." The Hollywood Reporter said it was "…a riveting thriller of paranoia and an instant guilty pleasure."
The cast includes Annie Williams as Agnes, Haley Hanks as R.C., Rhett Sells as Peter, John Davis as Jerry, and James Allen as Dr. Sweet.
The director of the production is Bruce B. Brown, Walton Professor of Theatre. Other production team members include, Meghan Mansur, stage manager and sound design; Lucas Hoiland, lightning design; Brown, scenic and costume design; and Allen, graphic design.
Crew members include, Hoiland as technical director, Flynn Hudson as assistant stage manager, Serra Thompson as light board operator, Kady Holmes as sound board operator, Sandra Davis as properties manager, and Houston Hall as company manager and makeup assistant. Other crew members include, Lynda Browder, Jessica Jobst, Ariana Lujan, Eleazar Coronado, Kassie Schraber, and Ryan LeClair.
Topics: Theatre