Still’s Drama

Although the Unicorn Theatre’s longstanding support for new plays inspired James Still to choose it for the premiere of The Velvet Rut, the playwright credits another local institution with awakening his love of the stage. “When the Rep was called the Missouri Rep, their touring production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf came to Ottawa,” recalls Still, a native of Pomona, Kansas, population 800. “It was hugely controversial …. When it was over, I remember sitting there, wishing it would start again.” At the Ottawa library, Still conducted his own crash course on American playwrights: “The moral issues of Miller, the poetry of Williams,” he exults. “Learning that William Inge had come from a place [Independence, Kansas] not dissimilar from mine and then won a Pulitzer Prize — they made me hungry.” That hunger has led Still to success: The Velocity of Gary (Not His Real Name), Iron Kisses and other works by him have struck theatergoers all over America. Tonight isn’t Still’s only world premiere set for this winter. In February, Still’s play The Heavens Are Hung in Black will debut at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., in celebration of the theatre’s reopening and the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Until then, Still is focused on The Velvet Rut, the story of a high-school English teacher so shaken by contemporary society that he can’t bring himself to teach until a Boy Scout named Virgil leads him on a journey deep into the woods. Joseph Price directs actors Jim Korinke and Matthew Jayson Weiss. “If there was no one like them [the Unicorn], and no one did new work, I don’t know how we’d move forward,” he says. Move forward with Still at 8 p.m. at the Unicorn’s Jerome Stage (3828 Main, 816-531-7529). And maybe bring a kid, just to show what’s possible.

Fri., Jan. 30, 8 p.m.; Sat., Jan. 31, 3 & 8 p.m.; Sun., Feb. 1, 3 p.m.; Tue., Feb. 3, 7:30 p.m.; Wed., Feb. 4, 7:30 p.m.; Thu., Feb. 5, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., Feb. 6, 8 p.m.; Sat., Feb. 7, 8 p.m.; Sun., Feb. 8, 3 p.m.; Tue., Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m.; Wed., Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m.; Thu., Feb. 12, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., Feb. 13, 8 p.m.; Sat., Feb. 14, 8 p.m.; Sun., Feb. 15, 3 p.m.; Tue., Feb. 17, 7:30 p.m.; Wed., Feb. 18, 7:30 p.m.; Thu., Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., Feb. 20, 8 p.m.; Sat., Feb. 21, 8 p.m.; Sun., Feb. 22, 3 p.m., 2009