Willamette University presents Driving Under the Influence

Visiting playwright Zagone's screenwriting credits include the short Brainstorm and the feature Ricky Is Famous.

Courtesy: Willamette University

(SALEM, Ore.) - Willamette University Theatre will present its second show of the 2007–08 season, Nick Zagone’s Driving Under the Influence, November 9th, 10th and 15h–17th at 8:00 PM and November 11th and 18th at 2:00 PM, with a preview performance November 8th at 8:00 PM. The performance will be in the Kresge Theatre at Willamette University.

“Life,” they say, “is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Find out what John Lennon and Yoko Ono meant as you follow eight crazy kids past their post–high school daze and on into suburbia, marriage, 2.5 kids — or not — and you’ll see it’s more fun when life doesn’t turn out as planned.

Visiting playwright Zagone, who graduated from Willamette in 1990, is a founding member of Open Circle Theatre in Seattle. He is winner of the International One-Page Play Competition in New York, the Mark A. Klein Playwriting Award, a Seattle Times Footlight Award, a Fulton Opera House Award and an artistic director’s Achievement Award from the San Fernando Valley Theatre League Alliance.

Zagone has worked with the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Seattle Repertory Theatre, ACT and Printer’s Devil in Seattle, Cal-State Stanislaus and Stage 3 in Sonora, California.

His screenwriting credits include the short Brainstorm and the feature Ricky Is Famous. He also has his own production company, Quality Pie Theatre.

Directing will be guest artist Marc Friedman, whose recent directing credits include Texts for Nothing by Samuel Beckett, The City Wears a Slouch Hat by Kenneth Patchen and John Cage, Bleeding in the Dark, and dramaturgical work for Hand2Mouth Theatre’s original show, Repeat After Me. Friedman currently teaches with the Northwest Children’s Theatre and is a member of the Voice and Speech Trainer Association.

Scene designer and Theatre Department Co-Chair Chris Harris will conceive the play’s environmental surroundings, Bobby Brewer-Wallin will design costumes, and senior theatre major Ben Crop will serve as lighting designer.

To purchase tickets, call the Willamette University Box Office at (503) 370-6221 or visit thtr-tix@willamette.edu. Opening night is $12, and $8 for students and seniors.

Most other evening performances are $10 for general admission and $6 for students and seniors. Contact the box office for specific pricing and details. The Willamette campus is located at 900 State Street in Salem.

For more information contact the Theatre Department at (503) 370-6222 or visit willamette.edu/cla/theatre