The Chapman theatre department has been working diligently to prepare for their upcoming play, “The Last Night of Ballyhoo”. The first performance will be Friday Sept. 23.

The Tony-Award-Winning “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” was written by by Alfred Uhry in 1996.  It is a comedy that focuses on a Jewish family living in Atlanta, GA in 1939. It is a comedy, but it is also a touching story that deals with the issue of prejudice

“I saw the production on Broadway and really loved it,” theatre teacher Carrie Roberts said. “I chose this play because I feel that we have all had the sense of being an outsider at some point in our lives, and I appreciate that the play could relate to the audience, cast and myself.”

Roberts said the play deals with issues of identity.

“So as you watch the play think about what makes up your ethnic identity and how you are judged, good or bad, based on that identity,” she said.

The cast consists of Boo Levy (Natalie Ritz), LaLa Levy (Carlie Shope), Peachy Weil (Kyle Wilson), Joe Farkas (Caleb Zwiernikowski), Reba Freitag (Rebecca Allison), Sunny Freitag (Ella Brown), Adolph Freitag (Dylan Cannon) and the stage managers (Katie Ash, Emma Baum and Kayla Hall).

“The most difficult part of putting on this production is that it seems like a simple show with a small cast,” Roberts said. “However the script makes it extremely important to correct small details of the set.”

The cast is excited about performing the play.

“My favorite plays to perform are comedies because it is a really great feeling to make an audience laugh,” Brown said.”The best part of performing in “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” is the characters. I especially love Peachy and LaLa because they are very funny, and I self identify with them a lot.