Wayne State University’s Studio Theatre presents That Championship Season, a drama by Jason Miller, at 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 1, 2005. That Championship Season opens in Coach’s decaying living room. He is hosting a reunion of the high school basketball team he coached to a championship about twenty years ago. Believing he has the absolute loyalty of the four members of his former team, Coach acts as if he is still not only their basketball coach but also their “life coach.” The group’s loyalty comes from their shared experience as the 1952 state champion basketball team.

A penetrating study of time lost that reflects the emptiness of America’s emphasis on winning, That Championship Season was only the second full-length play Miller wrote. It was by far his most successful. For this play, which lifted him out of obscurity, Miller won numerous awards, including the New York Drama Critics Award for Best Play, Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Playwright, and Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Playwriting Award, all in 1972. Miller also won the Antoinette Perry Award (the Tony) for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1973. In the early 1980s, he later adapted the play into a movie, which he directed.

Directed by Ph.D. candidate Cary Leiter, the cast includes: junior Kenny Konaszewski (Hamtramck) as Coach, senior Christopher Dybash (Troy) as Tom, sophomore Adam Schrader (Rochester Hills) as George, junior Greg Harris (Dearborn) as James and sophomore Marc Boudreau (Dearborn) as Phil. Designers for That Championship Season include sophomore Theresa Hartman (Royal Oak) as scenic designer/props designer, sophomore Joe O’Neil (Novi) as lighting designer, junior Patrick Field (Ann Arbor) as assistant lighting designer, freshman Heather DeFauw (Roseville) as assistant lighting designer and sound designer and senior Corey O’Sullivan (Canton) as costume designer.

Ticket prices range from $8-$10. Discount tickets are available to all students, senior citizens aged 62 and up and WSU faculty, staff and Alumni Association members. For tickets and further information, please call (313) 577-2972 or visit the Wayne State University box office at 4743 Cass on the corner of Cass and W. Hancock. Performance information may also be obtained by visiting the company’s website at www.theatre.wayne.edu.