UW School of Drama to Present READING TO VEGETABLES, Begin. 1/29

The UW School of Drama launches its winter quarter with Reading to Vegetables, a world premiere psychological thriller written by Northwest playwright EM Lewis. This is the third show in the 2013-2014 season and it offers the School of Drama MFA students an opportunity to experience the challenges and rewards of working on a new play in collaboration with a playwright. The play is being helmed by second-year MFA directing candidate Tina Polzin.

Inspired in part by Milgram's famous "Obedience to Authority Studies" of the 1960s, Reading to Vegetables is about a pre-med college student who signs up for an internship at a local hospital. The psychological experiment she takes part in requires her to pose as a coma victim and drags her deep into questions of morality and ethics she doesn't know how to answer. Her test subjects unwittingly share their secrets, and when a terrible accident occurs, the audience is left to decide who is responsible.

Polzin is passionate about new work and jumped at the chance of working with Lewis. "EM Lewis is a fabulous writer who has created a play with a strong social message told through a very human story," states Polzin. "She and I have been in contact since I told her we were doing the play. We've talked about some changes she would like to make and I bring to her the ways that I'm interpreting what's written. And we question each other and investigate what's best for the story."

EM Lewis has been working closely with the director and actors, even taking part in some rehearsals via Skype. It's a process that has allowed the play to organically evolvE. Lewis explains, "The opportunity as a playwright to work through the creative process in close collaboration with the UW MFA students and to experiment and figure out the play together has been fabulous."

Reading to Vegetables is in previews January 29 & 30 and runs January 31 - February 9. Performances are Wednesday-Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm. Tickets range from $10-20 and are available online or over the phone through the UW Arts Ticket Office, 206-543-4880 / drama.uw.edu/performances. The UW Arts Ticket Office is located at 1313 NE 41st Street, open Monday-Friday, 11 am-6 pm.

Performances are in the Glenn Hughes Penthouse Theatre, located on the UW campus near the north entrance at NE 45th St. and 17th Ave. NE.

Cast members include: Moises Castro, Christopher Donoghue, Sunam Ellis, Amanda Hilson, Anna Lamadrid, Darius Mousavi, and Joseph Ngo.