UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Centre Stage/Off-Centre will present two shows in repertory, "The Wolves" by Sarah DeLappe and "The Laramie Project" by Moisés Kaufman, March 27 through 31, at the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center. All seats $8.50. Evenings at 7:30 p.m., matinee at 2 p.m.
"The Wolves," (March 27, 29, 31 matinee), was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; the production won an Obie Ensemble Award; a special Drama Desk Award for its acting ensemble; and was nominated for Lucille Lortel and Drama League awards for Best Play, as well as for the Outer Critics' Circle John Gassner Award for Outstanding New American Play.
At its most straightforward, "The Wolves" is a fly-on-the-wall look at a girls' high school soccer team as they go through their warm-ups on the indoor soccer field. Beyond the surface, though, is the thoughtful and eloquent way DeLappe delineates each of the young women in the space of 90 minutes and six scenes.
"The Laramie Project," (March 28, 30, 31 evening), is one of the most-performed plays in America today. In October 1998 Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die, tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. Five weeks later, Moisés Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, and over the course of the next year, conducted more than 200 interviews with people of the town. From these interviews they wrote the play "The Laramie Project," a chronicle of the life of the town of Laramie in the year after the murder.
Off-Centre productions provide an opportunity to produce smaller-scale shows that are compelling, thought provoking, and entertaining. The productions act as a bridge for young designers and directors to advance their knowledge of staging and design practices in manageable, yet challenging, productions.
For additional show information, visit www.theatre.psu.edu. Tickets are available at Penn State Tickets Downtown, Eisenhower Box Office, Bryce Jordan Center, or by calling (814) 863-0255 or (800) ARTS-TIX.