How I Learned to Drive
Humor eases tough subject matter

With subject matter this intense, laughter is about the only option.

Theatre Columbus State will present “How I Learned to Drive,” written by Paula Vogel and directed by Nancy Kephart, from Aug. 19-22. In a season full of comedies, “How I Learned to Drive” is the darkest – a look at dysfunctional family dynamics, up to and including sexual abuse.

“It’s one way to get a message across,” Kephart says. “The laughter helps you get it.”

Performance dates and times are August 19 – 22, evenings at 8 p.m.; Thursday (8/20) matinee at 3 p.m. Performances are held in Nestor Hall Auditorium. Admission is free!

The play centers around Li’l Bit, a young woman growing up in Maryland in the 1960s, and the disturbing (yet sometimes warm) relationship she has with her Uncle Peck. In the background are three characters playing the “chorus,” and who take on additional roles.

Columbus State is intended to help people reach their goals, no matter what they are, and the theater program is no different. Some members started out in Kephart’s Theater 100 class, and others are going to a four-year school to study theater.

Jourdan Sanderson, portraying Li’l Bit, has already been accepted in Ohio State’s theater program. Ben Fox, a chorus member, is finishing up his senior year as a theater major at Ohio State.

Dave Robers (Uncle Peck) is on leave from the military, as is chorus member Jared Cave. Chorus member Nakia Smith will be familiar to Columbus State audiences from her work in “The Misanthrope” earlier this season. Costumes come from Erica Pepper, who’s creating costumes as part of her capstone project, and technical assistant Kelsey Vilanova is also a public relations and dance major at Otterbein College.

Cast members prepare for "How I Learned to Drive," opening Aug. 19 in Nestor Hall

As with other Columbus State programs, the theater department’s small class sizes and individualized instruction are assets. Kephart recently went to a production at Ohio State, only to see three of her former students on stage.

“Our students really do well when they leave here,” Kephart says, “and the reason they do that is because they get a lot of stage time.”

“How I Learned to Drive” won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for drama and was a co-winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the 1998 Lucille Lortel Award for an outstanding play. The original New York production starred Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse.