THEATRE + COMEDY

The Rice University - Department of Visual and Dramatic Art presents The Bug, by Richard Strand, March 19-20, 8:00 pm, March 21, 2:00 pm, March 25-27, 8:00 pm,  in  Hamman Hall on the Rice University campus.

The trouble in corporate paradise begins at Jericho Inc. with an employee’s simple question, which cannot be answered simply or otherwise. The ensuing confusion shifts the employee’s hyperactive imagination into comic overdrive, and the result is a farce of multinational proportions. As this Everyman of the 1980s faces off against a faceless bureaucracy, he discovers a bug in the system that threatens to tumble the pre-fab walls of Jericho Inc.

Richard Strand wrote his first play in 1976, a one act entitled Harry and Sylvia. That play won two national awards, was published by Hunter Press and a full length version of that same play, entitled Clown, premiered at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. Since that time he has had premieres at GeVa Theatre in Rochester, New York, Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, The Eugene O'Neill Center in Connecticut, The Z Collective in San Francisco and a number of other venues.

His plays are published by Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service and Applause Books. Two of his plays, The Bug and The Death of Zukasky. premiered at The Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville. The Bug has been translated into German, Italian and Spanish and continues to be performed in the United States and in Europe. Ten Percent of Molly Snyder was written in a wonderful coffee shop called Java House in Iowa City, Iowa where Mr. Strand was a member of the Playwright's Workshop. It premiered at Steppenwolf's Garage Theater under Ed Sobel's direction.

Mr. Strand currently lives in California with his wife, Mary Lynn (whose last name, before she got married, was Snyder). He is a professor, technical director and set designer at Mt. San Antonio College where he teaches Stagecraft, History of Theater and Playwriting.