Reading to Vegetables at University of Washington - Jan. 29 - Feb. 9

Reading to Vegetables

written by EM Lewis
directed by Tina Polzin

January 29 - February 9, 2014
Glen Hughes Penthouse Theater
University of Washington
Seattle, WA

The opportunity to bring a brand new play from page to stage is rare for student directors. With Reading to Vegetables, Tina Polzin, a student in our Professional Director Training Program (PDTP), will work directly with Portland-based playwright EM Lewis to create a Hitchcockian world of suspense on stage for the very first time. Inspired by Milgram’s famous “Obedience to Authority Studies” of the 1960s, this psychological thriller centers on a pre-med student, working as a research assistant, who poses as a coma victim. Her test subjects unwittingly share their secrets, and when a terrible accident occurs, the audience is left to decide who is responsible. The heightened stakes of this reality-based drama irrevocably lead to the question, “What would you do?”

A post-show talk will be held on Thursday, February 6.

Click here for more information and tickets.

"Reading to Vegetables" debuts at University of Washington in Seattle

Just after "True Story" premieres at Passage Theater in New Jersey, and simultaneous with The REP's production of "Heads" in Pittsburgh, my play "Reading to Vegetables" is going to have its debut at University of Washington in Seattle, directed by Tina Polzin.

I'm in excellent company in this season of plays, which includes one of my favorites -- "The Fifth of July" by Lanford Wilson.

• “The Real Inspector Hound” by Tom Stoppard (Oct. 16-27), directed by Desdemona Chiang

• “The Fifth of July” by Lanford Wilson (Nov. 13-24), directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton

• “Reading to Vegetables” by EM Lewis (Jan. 29-Feb. 9, 2014) directed by Tina Polzin

• “Arabian Nights” by Mary Zimmerman (Feb. 26-March 9), directed by Leah Adcock-Starr

• “The Beggar’s Opera” adapted by Vaclav Havel and translated by Paul Wilson (April 23-May 4), directed by R. Hamilton Wright

• “The Workroom” by Jean-Claude Grumberg (May 28-June 8), directed by Mark Jenkins

A big thank you to Tina for taking this play on!  

"Reading to Vegetables" is about a pre-med college student who signs up for an internship at a local hospital for a summer job.  The psychological experiment she takes part in drags her deep into questions of morality and ethics she doesn't know how to answer.  The play is inspired, in part, by Stanley Milgram's "Obedience" experiments in the early 1960's.

Feature article in the Seattle Times about UW's upcoming season can be found here.

To visit the UW Drama Department webpage and buy tickets, go here.