Street Scene, the first Department of Theatre Arts performance of 2002 playing March 6–10, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning drama directed by Randy Wonzong.

The best-known play of Elmer Rice (named one of America’s greatest playwrights), which debuted in 1929, is set in the streets of a New York City slum in the late 1920s. Street Scene is part romantic drama and slice-of-life. It focuses on six immigrant families and their struggles to overcome language, cultural, and marked individual differences while living in the same building.

“The play shows us a whole world where people are struggling with poverty, racism, and prejudice,” said Wonzong “It reminds us that, in some ways, we have not come that far in the last 70 years with these issues.”

An interesting thing about the production is that many actors play more than one character—in fact, 30 actors play close to 70 characters.

Marty Gilbert designed the set. The ambience of a New York City street will be enhanced by everyday sounds of elevated trains, cars, whistles, sirens, and people arguing.

Rice biographer Frank Durham described the play as “… one of the most ingeniously orchestrated plays in the American theatre.”

“The play is a great American classic,” said Wonzong. “One whose message of tolerance is perhaps more timely than ever.”

See calendar for ticket information.