UIS Theatre's season concludes with Milan Stitt's The Runner Stumbles

The Theatre Program at the University of Illinois Springfield will conclude its 2009-2010 season with the play The Runner Stumbles by Milan Stitt, opening Friday, April 23. Six performances will be presented in the Studio Theatre, on the lower level of the Public Affairs Center at UIS - on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, April 23, 24, and 25, and Thursday, Friday, Saturday, April 29, 30, and May 1. All shows will begin at 7:30 p.m. except the Sunday performance (April 25), which will begin at 2 p.m.

The Runner Stumbles is set in 1911 at a remote northern Michigan parish where a young nun, Sister Rita, mysteriously dies. Her superior, Father Rivard, is charged with the crime. As the trial unfolds four years later, the story alternates between the past and the present, revealing a conflicted relationship between the young nun and the priest. Sister Rita tries to inject color and life into the rural, drab town, bringing more tension to the surface. Part courtroom drama, part memory play, part romance, the play explores conflicts between duty to the church and duty to self, forbidden passions, and divisions between strict traditional morality and complex human emotions.

The cast is made up of 4 men and 5 women. Cast members include Dug Hall* (Father Rivard); Ben Gold* (Guard – Amos); Jennica Danner* (Erna); Ben Beams* (Lawyer – Toby); Ellyn Thorson* (Sister Rita); Nancy Cole@ (Mrs. Shandig); Dwight Langford* (Prosecutor); Jim Bonacum^ (Monsignor – Secretary); Kaitlyn Best* (Louise). * denotes a UIS student, @ a community member, and ^ a faculty member.

UIS Assistant Professor of Theatre Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson will direct.

Tickets – $12 general adult; $10 senior citizen, 65+ with photo ID; $8 UIS faculty/staff with current I-card; $6 all students with current school ID – are available now at the UIS Ticket Office, located on level two of the Public Affairs Center. Purchase tickets in person, by phone at 217/206-6160 or 800/207-6960 between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, or online at www.uis.edu/theatre. Tickets will also be available at the ticket office on the day of the performance, beginning 90 minutes before curtain time.

For more information, contact Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson at 217/206-8307 or email mthom1@uis.edu.