Brevard College Theatre students will perform The Dreamer Examines His Pillow next Thursday, Saturday and Sunday in the Morrison Playhouse at Brevard’s Porter Center for Performing Arts. Written in 1985 by John Patrick Shanley (winner of the 1988 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film Moonstruck), the play centers around three characters: a young woman confronting a complicated relationship; her lover, a young man who tries to find himself by sitting alone ruminating over a grotesque self-portrait; and the young woman’s father, who discovers just how removed he’s been from the rest of humanity. The production examines the purpose we can find through human connection and asks: Do we define ourselves, or are we the result of fate, history, nature and our circumstances?
Dramaturg Sarah Hajkowski (‘23) summarizes the play as a story about “complex characters doing the best they can with the information they have. In keeping with our program mission, we tell this story with the deliberate aim of ensuring both open-mindedness and personal safety.” Audience members should be advised of adult content: the play includes sexual themes and language, relational and age contexts for sexuality, gender opposition and sexism, and references to the primal.
The play runs approximately 85 minutes with no intermission. The Saturday night and Sunday matinee performances will be followed by a talkback: Saturday’s talkback will be a discussion with our Dreamer cast, director and production team, and Sunday’s will feature Art faculty member Ken McLeskey discussing art and identity.
Tickets can be purchased online at brevardcollege.eventbrite.com or at the door, if available. Ticket prices are $5 for students and $10 for the general public.
All performances will take place in the Morrison Playhouse at The Porter Center on the Brevard College campus. Performance times are as follows:
- Thursday, October 6, 7pm
- Saturday, October 8, 7pm
- Sunday, October 9, 2:30pm
- Sunday, October 9, 7pm
*(Please note there is no performance Friday, October 7!)
Brevard College is located at 1 Brevard College Dr, Brevard, North Carolina. More information can be found at https://brevard.edu/theatre/ or by calling 828.641.060