ROCK ISLAND, IL (02/07/2012)(readMedia)-- Augustana College presented How I Learned to Drive, the story of a young woman's complicated relationship with her uncle, from Friday, Jan. 27, through Sunday, Feb. 5. The play, written by Paula Vogel, premiered in 1997 and brought Vogel the Pulitzer Prize for drama one year later.
Students from across the Augustana campus worked together-both on stage and off-to produce this play, including Christine Harb a first year from Davenport, Iowa.
In this memory play, the main character, Li'l Bit, takes the audience on a journey conjuring up troubling events and people from her past, working to find answers to her life and a path for her future.
Guest director Dr. Jennifer Popple, who also served as an adjunct instructor of English and liberal studies at Augustana, wanted to direct the play ever since it premiered. She selected the play because it shines a light on something that is painful and devastating to a child, while showing a method for making one's way through it.
"To do all of this and still be extremely funny much of the time is a difficult thing to do, but Vogel's play accomplishes all of this and more," said Dr. Popple. "It has a beautiful message about how we can let our pasts shape, but not completely define, who we are going to be."
