SFA playwright's 'keepingabreast' being staged in Colorado
October 5, 2010
NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - Businesses package their products in pink, communities hold Race for the Cure events and people from all walks of life don pink ribbons during October. But playwright Jackie Rosenfeld, SFA visiting lecturer of theatre, offers her support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month by encouraging theatre companies who produce her play "keepingabreast" to donate part of the proceeds to breast cancer research.
The Spring Ensemble Theatre in Colorado Springs, Col., is doing just that during their run of the play from Sept. 30 through Oct. 16.
Rosenfeld's play, which premiered in 2006 as her Master of Fine Arts' thesis show at Texas Tech University, focuses on a 28-year-old breast cancer patient who must decide whether or not to undergo a mastectomy to rid herself of the cancer that has proven resistant to chemotherapy treatments.
While the subject is serious, the play is usually billed as a dramatic or dark comedy because it also deals with society's fascination with and the many nicknames assigned to breasts.
"If I can make the audience laugh, then take them somewhere dark, and then make them laugh again, they'll make this journey with me, and be willing to think about some very difficult things," the playwright said.
Rosenfeld will do talk-backs with the audience after the performances on Thursday, Oct. 7; Friday, Oct. 8; and Saturday, Oct. 9.