'US' to return for one night only Feb. 10

"US," the Western Washington University Theatre Department's hit show from last season, has been invited to be one of four full-length plays shown at Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Fort Collins, Colo., as part of the Region VII.

To help fund sending the cast and crew of students to the festival and get the show back into their bones, the department is remounting the show for one night only at Western, at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 on the Performing Arts Center Mainstage.

An investigation of the young American experience, "US" is inspired by Jack Kerouac’s "On the Road" and photographer Robert Frank’s book "The Americans." The production explores why these two artists traveled thousands of miles to ask “what does it mean to be an American?” and investigates what that question meant 50 years ago and how it resonates for audiences today. Having worked collaboratively for a year and a half, an ensemble of WWU students devised the original theatre piece, which contains live music, singing, dance, and moments of heightened theatricality.