photo by: Contributed

KU's University Theatre will open its spring season with the play "Corners Grove." Showings will run from March 6-8 and March 10-12 at the William Inge Memorial Theatre in Murphy Hall, 1530 Naismith Dr.

The spring season for KU’s University Theatre will open with the play “Corners Grove” this weekend.

The opening performance for the play, written by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin, will be Friday at the William Inge Memorial Theatre in Murphy Hall, 1530 Naismith Drive. Other showings will be held Saturday and Sunday and also March 10-12.

The play is set in a “smallish, progressive(ish) town in Northern California” in the late 2000s and early 2010s, according to Tom Zhang, director and visiting assistant professor in theatre, and is told through the lens of young adults navigating tales of “love, friendship and loss,” according to a press release.

Zhang said the characters in the play contend with the “political contradictions” going on in the country at the time, especially focusing on how the characters are impacted by the political landscape including the war in Iraq and “the mixed status of LGBTQ+ rights and conditional acceptance of queer individuals” at the time. Zhang added the “sparse and flexible set” for this production lets the focus remain on the student actors, who will use their talents to “draw audiences into their town.”

Along with Zhang and the rest of the University Theatre creative time, Garvin, the playwright, will be in residence to meet with the cast during the final week of rehearsal, according to a press release. The cast will also be workshopping a new play-in-progress commissioned by the KU Department of Theatre & Dance.

All performances will begin at 7 p.m. except for the showing on Sunday, which will be a matinee at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at kutheatre.com/corners-grove, or can be purchased in person weekdays at the box office at Murphy Hall from 12 to 5 p.m.