The spring semester comes to an end and the Department of Theatre and Dance will close its season with laughter by presenting “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.”
The show will run April 25-30 in the Theatre Center Mainstage.
The play is set in the early ‘90s and follows the conversation of five bridesmaids as they prepare for a wedding.
The women pass the time by discussing their different viewpoints on pressing social issues.
Michael Rau, assistant professor and director of the play, said he describes the play as a comedic personal look into each of the women’s lives.
“I think it is a play about imperfections and how imperfections can be both hilarious and tragic,” Rau said. “You see the women make the wrong choices and sometimes that’s a hilarious thing, and often times that leads to heartbreak but you see a character study in each one of them.”
Anthony Hinderman, theatre junior, plays the role of Tripp, and said he hopes audiences can leave with a new profound message.
“One of the topics of the play is the role that expectations play in people’s life,” Hinderman said. “All of these women are finding out ,in their own ways, that life is not how they thought it was supposed to be, and that it is fine. It’s one of the main themes in the show.”
Rau said the play was chosen this season because it highlights female characters rather than a male dominated cast, as most productions are.
“We wanted to give a primarily female-centric play that had very big, interesting roles,” Rau said. “I think that these five women are all really complicated characters and it is not all just either comedic or tragic, but they hit both of those areas and that makes it a big challenge for the actors.
Jordan Ford, theatre junior, plays the role of Frances who is one of the five women, and said that the play is meant to bring uncomfortable topics to light.
“All the women are in a room talking about their viewpoints; one of them is part of the LGBT community, one of them is a very strict religious Christian and the others are not,” Ford said. “The women discuss all different issues and bring their opposing outlooks.”
Rau said one of the issues is sexual assault.
“April is sexual abuse awareness month; you know this play does deal with some of those themes,” Rau said. “That was one of the issues that we wanted to address and talk about and give a forum, in which we say this is one way in which these women are struggling with this issue.”
Rau said audiences will be able to find something to both laugh at and connect with.
“It’s a snapshot of 1993 more than anything else, so the audience will get a sense of ‘wow things were really different back then,’” Rau said. “People used homophobic language and talked about abuse in a way that, thankfully, we do not talk like that now. Audiences will walk away with a sense of how far we have come and also a sense of how universal some of these themes are, and how we still struggle with these issues to this day. Almost like realizing that the past is the present and the present is the past.”
More details and ticket purchase can be found online.