UCM theater to stage ‘How I Learned to Drive'

The University of Central Missouri’s Department of Theatre & Dance will present the dramatic play “How I Learned to Drive” by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 15 through 18 and 2 p.m. Feb. 19 in the Highlander Theatre on the Warrensburg campus.

Admission is $12 for the public; $10 for UCM staff, faculty, and senior citizens; and $7 for students. Children younger than 5 will not be admitted. Tickets can be purchased online and are available at the University of Central Missouri Theatre box office.

Narrated through a series of bittersweet flashbacks, “How I Learned to Drive” is an honest, coming-of-age account of forgiveness, healing and growth, and how one can find light even from the unhealthiest of relationships. This production is for mature audiences only.

“How I Learned to Drive” received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Lortel Prize, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critics Awards for Best Play. Additionally, it earned an OBIE award and has since been produced all over the world.

Vogel is currently the playwright in residence at the Yale Repertory Theatre, as well as an artistic associate at Long Wharf Theatre. Work in progress includes a commission for Yale Repertory (based on “The God of Vengeance”), a work in collaboration with director Rebecca Taichman, and a new play, “Jitterbugging and the War Effort.” She is also the Eugene O’Neill Adjunct Professor of Playwriting and Chair of the Playwriting Department at the Yale School of Drama.

The UCM community will be given the opportunity to take part in a “Q & A with Paula Vogel” at 7 p.m. Feb. 10 in the Highlander Theatre. On Feb. 11 and 12, Vogel will host a Playwriting Boot Camp workshop for UCM students.

The cast includes Alisha Morris, Justin Barron, Devin Burns, Hannah Williams and Alexis Brie Morris.

The production staff includes director Julie Rae Mollenkamp; assistant directors Troy Battle and Sharai Bohannon; stage manager Tyler Mullen; assistant stage manager Sydney Crank; technical director and scenic designer Michael Benson; properties designer Charles Coffman; costume designer Ronnie Chamberlain; assistant costume designer Sayali Indulkar; hair and makeup designer Kayla Lopez; dramaturge Benjamin Cohen; costume shop manager Sarah Widgeon; costume shop staff Skye Adams; wardrobe crew members Avery Myers, Krystle Cain and Jerod Harms; deck chief Kalyssa Bates; lighting designer Jeffrey Peltz; assistant lighting designer Rachael Conroy; sound designer James Patton; public relations director Jan Glover; assistant public relations director Jacob Randall; photographer Joseph Drobezko II; graduate shop assistant Chris Lohkamp; box office manager Courtney Robinson; assistant box office manager Bobby Covington; and Theatre & Dance Department office professional Colette E. Tilden.

For more information, visit ucmo.edu/theatre or call 660-543-4020.