Last of the Boys

Staged reading of play by Pulitzer Prize-winning author at University of Puget Sound

Readers of my column will recognize the name Scott C. Brown. He's owned the Best Actor category in my annual Critic's Choice awards -- sharing it with other outstanding actors the past two years. Last year I gave the award to Brown and his co-actor Brian Claudio Smith for their work in "Sins of the Mother" at Harlequin Productions, and the year before I picked him for his Randel McMurphy in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” at Lakewood Playhouse. Sharing the award that year was Anders Bolang as John in “Shining City” at Harlequin. And the year before he was my best dramatic actor pick for Salieri in "Amadeus" at Lakewood Playhouse.

Brown has recently sent me information on a reading of "Last of the Boys" by Steven Dietz, which he will be in along with Bryan K. Bender from Seattle; Meleesa Wyatt, Seattle actor and theatre faculty at University Prep; and three very strong UPS theatre students, Jen Davis, Mitch Knottingham, and Bryan Sullivan. According to the notice Brown sent me, the play is "moving, darkly funny and pitch perfect in its treatment of two colorful Vietnam vets coming to terms with opposing perspectives on the war and their part in it. All five roles are deeply drawn and richly interwoven.

The staged reading at UPS is a collaboration between Northwest Playwrights Alliance and University of Puget Sound Theatre Arts, to benefit the Dragoon Raiders Soldier and Family Fund. 7:30pm March 3, Stonegate Club, 5421 S. Tacoma Way; 7:30pm March 4, Wheelock Student Center, (Rendezvous) UPS, 1500 N. Warner; 9:30pm March 5, Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 North I Street. Information: UPS Theatre Arts (253)879-3330.