The theater production of “August: Osage County” will be performed July 27-31 at McNeese State University’s Tritico Theater.

“August: Osage County” is a tragicomedy written by playwright Tracy Letts in 2007. It explores the complex relationships and situations of a family struck by tragedy.

According to Dr. Brook Akya Hanemann, director of Banners at McNeese, this play is a Pulitzer Prize-winning production that was deemed as “one of the most exciting American plays that’s come out in the past couple decades.”

“It fearlessly tackles some of the more hidden things in America, mostly revolving around the intricacies of family dysfunctions and family relationships. It’s really all centered around the Weston family as they contend with some pretty heavy issues.”

The play, while heavy with drama, is also “bitingly funny.”

“It goes for the throat and then it makes you belly laugh,” said Hanemann. “The best way for me to describe this play is that it is an absolute roller coaster.”

This is the first time that “August: Osage County” has been produced in Southwest Louisiana. Hanemann attributes this to both the mature intensity of the play and the complexities of its production.

“It is a massive undertaking,” she said. “This is a play that happens on a 3-story set. It’s extremely complex.”

Hanemann explained that most plays have “single-column” dialogue, in which there is only one conversation happening on stage. However, this production features “three-column” dialogues. This means that at points during the play, there will be three conversations occurring simultaneously.

“There’s 12 people talking on stage in different conversations,” she stated. “Conversations loop and intertwine with each other, and happen across the room. It’s a big challenge for actors, but it is magnificent to see on stage.”

“It’s a particularly rich play, because Letts creates characters that are so specific and so real.”

This play is for mature audiences and “not for the faint of heart.” Hanemann said the material is very adult, and is not something that you should bring your children to see.

The director of this production is Rus Blackwell. Blackwell has more than 81 film and television credits, and has acted alongside actors such as Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Charlize Theron and Paul Rudd.

He also trained at the famous New York-based theater school Circle and the Square.

“To have him here, it is really hard to articulate what an immense blessing and gift it is,” Hanemann said.

The cast is just as impressive. “The cast is a mix of our community’s favorite actors from all our local theaters and the crew is the best Lake Charles has to offer.”

Hanemann, Clay Herbert, Mark Hebert, Leslie Israel, Greg Leute, Paula McCain, Amber Netherland, Heather Partin, Randy Partin, Jonathan Richards, Dan Sadler, Kenzi Whitman, and Bacot Wright will all be gracing the stage.

This production is an impressive collaboration between Banners at McNeese, ACTS Theater, Lake Charles Little Theater, and the W.A. and Dorothy Hanna Department of Performing Arts at McNeese collaborated to bring this production to life on McNeese’s stage.

Hanemann explained that a collaboration as large and complex as this has not occurred in Lake Charles before now.

“Often actors and designers are very much isolated in their own theater … one of the amazing things that has happened since the pandemic and disasters, is that people are starting to share resources. This is an incredibly creative collaboration that is happening with people that have never worked together before.”

“I think it is really going to affect our theater community in the future.”

For Hanemann, patrons will get their money’s worth to simply see the set. The set was built by a group and engineers and former members of the military that “live and breathe theater.”

“They have put together one of the most powerful sets that I have seen as a theater practitioner.”

McNeese and Sowela students get free admission with a valid student ID. General admission tickets cost $20, and can be purchased online at www.banners.org. Tickets can also be purchased in the theater’s lobby.

The performances for July 27-30 will begin at 7 p.m. The Sunday performance on July 31 will begin at 2 p.m.

•

For more information, visit www.banners.org or call 337.475.5123.