'Getting Out'
The Spring 2017 production is directed by HCC theater professor Patricia Sandoval.
The HCC Theater Department will present Getting Out by Marsha Norman, directed by HCC theater professor Pat Sandoval April 20-22 at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee performance on Sat., April 22, at 2 p.m.
The play was selected as part of the HCC Theater Department's celebration of the "Year of the Woman -- Playwrights and Directors." Getting Out was also selected to honor Leslie Phillips, who directed it as her last play at HCC, in 1988. The HCC theater, formerly The Forum, is named after Leslie Phillips.
Getting Out is the story of Arlene, a woman struggling to survive on the outside after being incarcerated for eight years in a Kentucky prison. We meet the guards, prison officials, and her former self (Arlie) who all appear on stage in flashbacks. Her struggle to make peace with the present as she confronts the present is compounded by her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, mother, and a friendly neighbor.
"The play, like life, offers no simple answers, but it conveys, with heartrending honesty and compassion, the struggle of someone fighting for her life against incredible odds," one reviewer said.
Given the alarming increase of women in prison since the play was written in 1978, Arlene's story is even more relevant and poignant today as she, and the many women like her, struggles in getting out.
The Thursday, April 20, performance will be ASL-interpreted.
