Staged readings for a three-act play, Coach and Mrs. Jagoff

STAGED READING OF THREE-ACT PLAY, COACH AND MRS. JAGOFF, TO BE PERFORMED NOVEMBER 26 AND 27 AT SOUTH PARK THEATREA staged reading of a three-act play, titled Coach and Mrs. Jagoff, will be performed on Saturday, November 26 and Sunday, November 27 at South Park Theatre, South Park Township. Both performances will begin at 3 p.m. The staged readings, which are free and open to the public, will be directed by Andy Kirtland, artistic director of The New Renaissance Theatre Company and a resident of Brighton Heights. Feedback about the play will be solicited from the audience at the end of each performance. "This is a play about, by, and for the people of western Pennsylvania," Mr. Kirtland says. The play is about the sudden firing, the struggles with alcoholism, and the redemption of Gus Sebastian, a successful high-school football coach in Fisk, a declining industrial town in western Pennsylvania. The plot revolves around Gus' steadfast marriage to his patrician wife Lynn and the Fisk townspeople's increasingly hostile attitude toward both of them. "The play deals with the corrosive effects of income inequality on a community," Mr. Kirtland says. "Gus and Lynn Sebastian are affluent and perceived as haves who don't fit in culturally in a town of have-nots. But over time, after enduring a string of personal and professional troubles, they are ultimately embraced by the town." Gus Sebastian is played by John Dolphin of Butler, and Alyssa Herron of Uniontown portrays Lynn Sebastian. Supporting them are cast members Kathy Ciesielski of Economy, Joanna Getting of Squirrel Hill South, David Colin Lynch of New Castle, and Cheryl Weiss of Ross Township. The play was written by Bruce Zewe of Pine Township.