Theater: Vrooommm! A NAScomedy May 14, 2005

The Carleton Players will present ?Vrooommm! A NAScomedy? at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, May 6 and 7, and Friday and Saturday, May 13 and 14, at Carleton College?s Arena Theater. The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are recommended.

?Vrooommm! A NAScomedy,? written by Janet Allard and conceived and developed with Michael Dixon, is directed by Carleton?s Dayton Hudson Distinguished Visiting Teacher and Artist for Theater and Dance, Liz Engelman. It takes a satiric view at the racing sport in order to reveal how America?s competitive approach has been corrupted by the unrelenting desire for commercial success. Composed primarily of a female cast, it depicts the story of a female driver who comes to lead the NASCAR season standings. The disgruntled males soon bring sabotage, deception and scandal onto the runway. A comedy about love and money, ?Vrooommm!? is ultimately about the females in a male-dominated universe of NASCAR racing. It was recently featured in the Fourth Annual New Works Festival.

Engelman is the project associate for Princeton University?s Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, aiding with research on new plays by new playwrights. She also serves as Princeton?s McCarter Theatre literary director. She has been the literary manager and dramaturg of Seattle?s Intiman Theatre and assistant literary manager of Actors Theatre in Louisville. She also has worked on developing new plays at the Playwrights? Center at places including Minneapolis, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, New York Theatre Workshop and A.S.K. Theatre Projects, a nonprofit organization established for the development of new work for the stage. Engelman has been a visiting dramaturg at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Puget Sound. She has taught playwriting at Freehold Studio Theatre Lab and has studied dramaturgy and new play development. She received her B.A. from Brown University and her M.F.A. from Columbia University. She is the vice president of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and the co-editor of three collections of plays.

The Carleton Players produce three faculty-directed productions each year. The Carleton College Arena Theater has limited disability accessibility. For reservations, more information, or disability accommodations, call the Arena Theater office at (507) 646-4471.