World premiere of ‘Our Play’ set for Wednesday at River Campus

The world premiere of the award-winning "Our Play" by Jessica Moss will take place Wednesday, Feb. 28, at Rust Flexible Theatre on the Southeast Missouri State University River Campus in Cape Girardeau.

The play won SEMO’s Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival competition in 2023. It is an annual competition honoring new American plays that provide performance opportunities for college-aged actors.

In a description of the play on SEMO’s website, the story follows high school students who are doing a production of "Our Town" by American playwright Thornton Wilder in 1938.

Kit Lavoie, assistant professor of the Dobbins Conservatory of Theatre and Dance and the show’s director, said those who know "Our Town" will be able to see similarities and parallels between the two plays, but that "Our Play" stands on its own.

"I think a lot of people think it is sort of out of touch and old-timey, but I think it isn’t really at all, and it’s sort of part of the students discovering that and discovering the themes of that show in their own lives. It is both incredibly funny and charming and also deals with some more challenging things young people are dealing with these days," she explained.

The production features more than a dozen characters.

"It’s been really exciting to see them working together," Lavoie said. "The younger students are learning from the older students, and the older students are learning from being an example to the younger students. It’s been really exciting to watch them develop together."

Lavoie said they have been working with playwright Moss during the process of getting the play ready. He said the students were able to have the opportunity to do something that happens in the professional world, which is working on something that has not been done before.

"A real focus that we have developed in the conservatory is, in addition to training people how to do plays that have been done by other people and musicals that have been done, we want to teach them how to work in new work," she said.

Performances of "Our Play" will be at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28, through Saturday, March 2, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 3, in Rust Flexible Theater at the River Campus, 518 S. Fountain St..

For more information or to purchase tickets, call the River Campus box office at (573) 651-2265 or visit www.rivercampus.org.