Drama Events

Drama Production: 'Fat Pig' by Neil LaBute
Directed by Marion A. Wright
Featuring Michael Curry, Assasta Hefner, Jon Kenner and Joi Porter

When: Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 3-5, 2013, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 6, at 3 p.m.
Where: John D. Rockefeller Fine Arts Building, Baldwin Burroughs Theater
Fees: Free and Open to the General Public

How many insults can you hear before you have to stand up and defend the woman you love? Tom face that question when he falls for Helen, a bright, funny, sexy young woman who happens to be plus-sized and then some.

Forced to explain his new relationship to his shallow friends, Tom finally comes to terms with his own preconceptions of the importance of conventional good looks.

Neil LaBute's sharply drawn play not only criques our slavish adhearence to Hollywood idols of beauty, but boldly questions our own ability to change what we dislike about ourselves.

Fat Pig Talkbacks

There will be a  series of talkbacks with the cast, director and other colleagues (including the Wellness Center) from across campus on the Friday and Saturday evenings immediately following the performance. We feel that this is a great opportunity to explore these themes across disciplines. We invite you all to our home, in the Rockefeller Theatre in the Fine Arts Building and see and discuss what all the buzz is about...

Why this play? Why now?

Director's Note: In February 2011, I attended American College Theatre Festival in Daytona Beach, Florida. At one of the competitions, two actors performed a scene from a play called Fat Pig. In the scene a handsome and popular gentleman strikes up a conversation with a smart, flirtatious yet overweight woman. As I watched the scene I thought to myself, we don’t often see that story onstage. As a woman who’s fought obesity her entire life, I felt compelled to find out the rest of the story. As I researched Fat Pig, I found that contemporary playwright Neil LaBute had written, amongst many other things, a series of three plays commonly referred to as “The Beauty Trilogy.”

Each of the three plays: The Shape of Things, Fat Pig and reasons to be pretty, deals with society’s fixation and internal struggles with physical appearance. Last season we produced The Shape of Things and this season we tackle Fat Pig.

Tom is a young urban professional who has a bad track record of quickly losing interest in the attractive women he dates. In the first scene of the play, Tom encounters a bright, funny, sexy woman who is described as very plus-sized. The two connect and eventually start dating. When Tom’s shallow co-workers and friends discover what Helen looks like they taunt him. Forced to explain his new relationship to his shallow co-workers and friends, Tom must come to terms with his own insecurities.

According to LaBute “It’s really a study in weakness, and a play about Tom’s journey. Helen is the most centered character onstage. I want to know if Tom can rise above himself, if he can reconcile his public and private selves. Can he be honest? Can he be truthful? It’s an examination of what it means to love…”

As young women and men struggle to identify who they want to be and who they are becoming, I believe this series of plays will strike a chord in the hearts and minds of students in the Atlanta University Center and bring light to how hurtful words and actions can deeply wound the human spirit.

The Department of Drama and Dance presents Play Date Fridays

At least once a month the department will hold cold readings of plays. The plays will be cast and read on the same day. Come take part in the most fundamental process of preparing a play….
HEARING IT.

When: Friday, Oct. 4, 2013, at noon
Where: The Acting Studio/Black Box, Room 129, Fine Arts Bldg.
What is Needed: Your voice, your presence, your time and your energy
Who Can Come: Members of the Seplman community.This is a campus-wide, free event.