For tickets or production information:• The 2008-09 Season is done! Have a great summer, as the Department is closed until August 25.
• Audition for the Fall productions! September 5, 2009
• How I Learned to Drive October 16-25, 2009
• Fall Winter Shorts November 13-22, 2009
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How I Learned to Drive October 16-25, 2009 is a play written by American playwright Paula Vogel, who received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work. Directed by Carrie Baker (The Laramie Project, Three Days of Rain).
Plot synopsis
Li'l Bit grows up in rural Maryland during the 1960s with a large extended family: her mother, who became pregnant at a young age; her grandmother, a God-fearing former child-bride, her ignorant, sexist grandfather, her Uncle Peck, who has been affected by experiences in combat and is a recovering alcoholic, and Aunt Mary, who is in denial of her husband's behavior.
When Li'l Bit is 11, Uncle Peck gives her a driving lesson, during which he molests her. Li'l Bit is too young to understand what has happened and, while her mother suspects that Peck has an unhealthy interest in his niece, she does nothing about it.
Years pass and Li'l Bit enters puberty. Though she is quite intelligent, her classmates recognize her only for her large breasts. Peck continues to molest her, at one point using his amateur photo studio to take provocative pictures of her. Though he makes her uncomfortable, Peck is the only member of her family who is nice to her and supportive of her plans to go to college. He continues to give Li'l Bit driving lessons, and when she drives she develops a feeling of control that she does not have in her home life.
Peck attempts to convince Li'l Bit to have sex with him, but Li'l Bit rejects his advances, albeit reluctantly; since they are both "outsiders" in their family, she feels an odd kinship with him. Li'l Bit goes to college, and is surprised to receive gifts from Uncle Peck in the mail, along with letters counting down to her eighteenth birthday.
When she turns eighteen, she confronts Uncle Peck; he has been hoping to finally have sex with her now that she is a legal adult, but more than that, he wants her to marry him. Li'l Bit refuses and permanently severs their relationship.
Narrating as an adult, Li'l Bit reveals that she was eventually expelled from college and that Uncle Peck drank himself to death. However, looking back on her experiences, she has learned to forgive Peck for his wrongdoings. She concludes that he did give her something valuable: the freedom she feels only when she drives.
Winter Shorts November 13 - 22, 2009
Student Directed (and student-produced) one-acts. This set features Zoo Story by Edward Albee and an adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream.
A Zoo Story explores themes of isolation, loneliness, social disparity and dehumanization in a commercial world.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare. It portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke of Athens, Theseus, the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, and with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.Return to the top of this page.
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