Play by Theatre Department Chair Receives World Premiere

The Mother, a new play by Department of Theatre Chair Lynne Conner, received its world premiere by Dramatic Repertory Company in Portland, Maine, in March. The play explores the effects on a mother – and her family – of a school shooting that is perpetrated by her son. A review in the Portland Press Herald called it “a powerful and harrowing drama.”

Dr. Conner is a prolific playwright. Her plays and adaptations have been produced at Theatre Project (Brunswick, Maine), Main Street Theatre (Houston, Texas), Theatre-Hikes (Chicago), the Actors’ Guild of Lexington (Kentucky), Quantum Theatre (Pittsburgh), Gemini Theatre (Pittsburgh), and Prime Stage (Pittsburgh) and in academic settings such as Carnegie Mellon University, Smith College, William and Mary College, Loyola Marymount, Slippery Rock University, Point Park University, and the University of Pittsburgh Repertory Theatre.

The Mother was a 2018 and 2019 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist. It played at the Studio Theater at Portland Stage, March 6-8 and then closed as a result of the pandemic.