Coming Here is a play about stories - how they come to be and what they do to us, Gronbeck-Tedesco said. The play deals with Italian immigrants new to the United States and their adjustment to life in a new country.
"These stories are part of my childhood memories," he said. "The characters and plot came from people I knew, my family, and they were told repeatedly at family gatherings as I grew up."
First finished about five years ago, Coming Here grew from the notion that "this whole country came from somewhere else."
"This country becomes, for those who arrive on its shores, the glimmering possibility of escape from the past," Gronbeck-Tedesco said. "This escape from tradition allows for the terrifying and wonderful possibility of creating oneself anew. It is about the struggle between what that escape promises and the consequences of cutting off one's own roots."
The three parts of the humorous drama are "Tony and the Telephone Pole," set in spring 1948 in the home of Maureen and Tony Avito in downtown Cleveland; "Salvatore and the Gutters," set in the late 1930s in a small Cleveland tenement in the Italian ghetto; and, the final act, Coming Here, set in a small tavern in the Sicilian village of Villa Rosa in June 1926.
The play is directed by Samuel Wolfgang Schimek, Lincoln, Neb., doctoral student in theatre, assisted by Gronbeck-Tedesco. Scenic and lighting design is by Delbert L. Unruh, professor of theatre and film, and costume design is by Galina Urman, Lawrence graduate student in scenography. Fight choreographer for the production is Doug Weaver, Lawrence doctoral student. Paul Meier, associate professor of theatre and film, is voice and articulation coach.
Tickets are $12 for the public, $6 for KU students and $11 for other students and senior citizens. Reserved-seat tickets are on sale at the KU box offices.