Theatre Rehearsal and Performance provides students with deep intellectual and artistic immersion in the theatrical process through intensive research, rehearsal, and performance of a full-length stage piece. Students may enroll in this course as actors (by audition only) or as assistant directors, stage managers, dramaturgs, or designers (by permission of the instructor). Each semester, the play will be featured in the Theatre Arts Program production season. This course does not follow a typical meeting pattern.

In Spring 2023, Margit Edwards will direct Eisa Davis’ Bulrusher. Auditions are required before students can register as actors and will be held on 11/1 and 11/2 from 6:30pm – 8:30pm in Room 221 in the Annenberg Center. For more information and a link to sign-up for a 20 minute audition slot, visit: https://theatre.sas.upenn.edu/events/2022/11/01/auditions-bulrusher-spring-2023. If you are interested in joining the course as a stage manager or dramaturg, e-mail Technical and Production Manager Cat Johnson at catj@sas.upenn.edu.

About the play: Bulrusher by Eisa Davis delicately explores the intricacies of an emerging racial awareness and self-identity in a small, isolated, idyllic town in the redwood country north of San Francisco. Set in 1955 with the murder of Emmet Till distantly haunting the background, Bulrusher, is about an orphaned multiracial girl, with a gift for clairvoyance that makes her feel like a stranger even amongst the strange: the taciturn schoolteacher who adopted her, the madam who runs her brothel with a fierce discipline, the logger with a zest for horses and women, and a guitar-slinging boy who is after Bulrusher’s heart. Just when she thought her world might close in on her, she discovers an entirely new sense of self when a black girl from Alabama comes to town. In the process, a nuanced coming of age story, set within the complex interconnections of black, white, and indigenous people in US, is revealed.