Productions of Good Kids, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Enter Their Final Week

It is the final week for two productions by University of Pittsburgh Stages—one, a timely new script about a sexual assault and its aftermath, and the other, a Shakespearean classic.

Both Good Kids, by award-winning playwright Naomi Iizuka, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Shakespeare & Company’s Victoria Rhoades, run through Nov. 22. Good Kids is showing at Pitt’s Henry Heymann Theatre, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in the Charity Randall Theatre, both in the Stephen Foster Memorial.

Good Kids is based on real events that occurred at a Steubenville, Ohio, high school in 2012. In the play, something happens to Chloe after a weekend party, and everyone at school is talking about it. The problem is, Chloe can’t remember anything about the night. The play is codirected by Pitt Theatre Arts faculty members Kimberly Griffin and Lisa Jackson-Schebetta. 

Good Kids is part of The Big Ten Theatre Consortium’s New Play Initiative and has been produced royalty-free at universities across the country since October 2014.

Performances are free to all students, regardless of whether or not they attend Pitt. Adult tickets are $12.50. Performances are Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

The production is supported by the University of Pittsburgh Counseling Center; Distinguished Alumna Nancy Welfer (CAS ’40, Law ’49); Pitt’s Office of Undergraduate Studies; Pitt’s Interfraternity Council; Pitt’s Title IX Office; the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Association of University Women; and the Year of the Humanities in the University. 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, meanwhile, focuses on four lovelorn young adults who find themselves lost in the woods and in the midst of a dispute between its magical inhabitants. The William Shakespeare classic comedy features a diverse cast of 26 actors. 

Play director Rhoades, a Pittsburgh native, hasn’t worked in her hometown since the 1990s when she appeared in a City Theatre production. Since then, she has been based in Lennox, Mass. working with the prestigious Shakespeare & Company. She says she is thrilled to have recently moved back to Pittsburgh and to be working with the cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which includes both theater arts majors and Pitt students from other disciplines.

Performances at the Charity Randall Theatre are Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets range from $12 to $25. 

For more information on either play or to purchase tickets, visit www.play.pitt.edu/current-season/tickets or call 412-624-7529.