Ted Swartz (l.) and Trent Wagler in a scene from Ted & Company TheaterWorks’ original play, “I’d Like to Buy An Enemy.”

The play, starring Ted Swartz, Trent Wagler and Peter Nelson with original music by Wagler, is both hilarious and poignant. It allows us to laugh at ourselves while raising important questions about the place of the U.S. in the world, why fear is such a large part of our culture and asks the question: How can we honestly work for peace and justice in this country … and just maybe in the world?

Sketches include: “I’d Like to Buy an Enemy,” “Why Can’t I Get My Money Back?”, “The Reptilian Brain Speaks: We’re late! We’re late … are we late?” and “You Started it! – a treatise on the cycles of violence.”

CJP representatives will lead a discussion after the play.

Ted Swartz lives in Harrisonburg when he’s not on the road presenting workshops, sermons, solo shows or performing with the variety of actors that make up Ted & Company TheaterWorks. Perhaps most well-known for finding the humor and humanity in biblical stories (“Fish-Eyes,” “Creation Chronicles” and “DoveTale”), created with Lee Eshleman during their 20-year partnership, Swartz has recently begun creating plays about peace and justice (“I’d Like to Buy an Enemy”), the meaning of church and faith (“What Would Lloyd Do?”) and acting with Ingrid De Sanctis, Trent Wagler, Jeff Raught and others.

Trent Wagler is a freelance actor and musician from Harrisonburg. He has recorded four full-length albums and toured across the country with his band, The Steel Wheels and in duo performances with Jay Lapp. Wagler has played the role of Gabriel in Ted & Lee’s “DoveTale” show and worked with Swartz to create “What Would Lloyd Do?” and “I’d Like to Buy an Enemy.”

Pete Nelson is a 2008 graduate of 草莓社区.

Tickets are available at the door only (no advance tickets will be sold) for $12/adults; $6/students. Call 540-574-4877 for more information.

In the play, a contemporary take on the adventures of Odysseus from Homer’s epic tale, a young refugee called Anon enters the U.S. by being swept ashore, having survived a boat crash. Like a contemporary Odysseus from Homer’s epic tale, Anon must live by his wits, his instincts, fortitude and humor to survive.

Junior Steve Kniss directs actors junior Brent Anders and sophomore Brandon Habron. (Photo: Erika Babikow)

Steve Kniss, an EMU junior vocal performance and digital media major from Chicago, Ill., is directing the 11-member cast with an original score and sound design by Michael Swartzendruber, a junior theology and philosophy major from Kalona, Iowa. ( in The Weather Vane, EMU’s student newspaper.)

This stunning lyrical saga is unflinching in its gritty determination to come at you with the absurdities of life. “Anon” ricochets off one chaotic situation, then slam bangs into another. It’s a dream. It’s a nightmare. It’s life. It’s the stuff of epic adventures – and real ones.

Tickets and other information

General admission to the one act, 90-minute play is $5 at the door. Advance tickets are available by calling the EMU theater office, 540-432-4360 or email: theater@emu.edu.

No one wanted to see it. The memories were too painful. The script was rejected. The show opened to rough reviews. The playwright was fired because it appeared she really screwed this one up. Even that did not stop Deborah Brevoort, who paid EMU a visit to watch her show and talk to students this past Saturday.

Playwright Deborah Brevoort gives a talkback after Saturday’s performance of ‘Women of Lockerbie.’ Seniors Greta Shenk and Emily Hertzler listen in. (Photo:Amy Schmid)

Internationally acclaimed playwright, Deborah Brevoort, author of the production “Women of Lockerbie,” was up against a lot of opposition to get her play heard by the masses in the 1990s. Based on the first terrorist attack against America, “Lockerbie” told the story of the aftermath of the plane crash and the response of the women from Lockerbie. Told by many that “No one wants to see this,” Brevoort kept pushing for her poignant yet horrific story to be told. During the 1990s, few wanted to hear the sad tale that painted a picture of a vulnerable America. However, after September 11, the play finally received the attention it deserves.

According to the playwright, the idea for the play came to her in 1997. She was channel-surfing late at night when she came upon the image of the cockpit of Pan Am 103 smoldering in the hills of Lockerbie. A news channel was running a special on the nearly decade-old disaster, and Brevoort was surprised to find the story of the women who washed and returned clothes to the crash victims’ families a rather uplifting yet painful story.

She woke up the next morning with the concept for a production about the Scottish women playing through her mind. She went to her bookshelf and pulled down books of Greek tragedies, which she used as inspiration for the show. She says that, “Inspiration is not romantic, but tied to study. It comes with reading and being engaged with the world.”

Her journey would not be an easy one. Disregarding later opposition to her play, she says, “I had to take the audience into the journey of the horror.” With this in mind, she set to work writing the painful tale. During the process, she discovered that, “Light is found in the darkest places. You don

In the play, written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl and directed by 2008 EMU theater graduate Pam Mandingo, a woman is forced to confront her assumptions about morality, redemption and the need to connect in a technology-obsessed world.

Cast members are Brent Anders, Souderton, Pa.; Sarah Gant, Harrisonburg; Katie Jantzen, Plymouth, Neb.; Evan McCarthy, Bluffton, Ohio; Heidi Muller, Fancy Gap, Va.; and Sonnie Siegfried, Lancaster, Pa.

Stage managers are Brandon Habron, Fredericksburg, Va., and Kimberly Lane, Fairfax, Va. Lighting designer is Jonathan Nofziger, Lancaster, Pa.; with sound design by Praveen Chhetri, Kathmandu, Nepal.

General admission tickets are $5 and may be purchased at the door or by calling 540-432-4360.

A delay in final inspection of electrical conduit work in the new Mainstage Theater at 草莓社区 has changed the play dates for the EMU Theater production of "Proof," originally scheduled to open this Thursday, Sept. 1.

Theater at EMU will perform the critically-acclaimed play 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 7-8, and 7 p.m. Sat., Sept. 10, in the Mainstage Theater in what was the old EMU gymnasium on the south end of the University Commons. The intimate 161-seat theater space was constructed in part with considerable volunteer labor from faculty, students and community persons.

"Proof," by David Auburn, and directed by Patrick R.K. Reynolds, visiting assistant professor of theater at EMU, won the 2001 Pulitzer Price and Tony Award for "Best Play."

"I regret the unexpected delay, but it’ll be worth the wait," Reynolds said. "This is a powerful play, and even though the cast was ready for opening night, we’ll be able to do several additional rehearsals."

Auburn’s masterpiece revolves around Catherine, a troubled young woman who has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father, a famous mathematician. On the eve of her 25th birthday, following his death, she must confront her own volatile emotions; the arrival of her estranged sister, Claire; and the attentions of Hal, a former student of her father’s who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that her father left behind.

Over the long weekend that follows, a burgeoning romance and the discovery of a mysterious notebook draw Catherine into the most difficult problem of all: How much of her father’s madness – or genius

The message of ROTC recruiters to the young people of America: “Give us a few weekends each year and you

Theater at EMU will present six performances of the popular musical, “Godspell,” in Lehman Auditorium at Eastern Mennonite University.

Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 3-4 and Oct. 10-11, with matinees at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5 and 12.

The musical, which enjoyed a successful off-Broadway run in 1971, is based on the gospel according to St. Matthew.

Featuring a 10-member ensemble cast and music and new lyrics by Stephen Swartz, the play builds gradually on a series of New Testament stories to a powerful close depicting the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

“‘Godspell’ offers the timeless words of the One who is the way, the truth and the life, and it offers the kind of music that sends us singing out the door,” said Barbra Graber, associate professor of theater at EMU and the play’s director. Anne Gross of EMU’s music department is musical director.

Admission is $8 in advance, $10 at the door; seniors (65 and over), $6; students, $6 and children ages 5-9, $3. The play is not recommended for children under five.

Advance tickets are available by calling the EMU box office, 540-432-4582.

NOTE: When EMU Theater first presented