FARMINGTON – University of Maine at Farmington’s Theatre UMF will present Lisa Loomer’s award-winning comedy “Expecting Isabel,” an honest glimpse at the efforts of a 21st century couple to have a child.

The play takes the audience on an “Alice in Wonderland-esque” ride through the booming baby business and all its pitfalls as a modern-day couple tries to have a baby by any means possible.

A playwright, screenwriter, actress and comedian, Loomer co-wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award-winning film “Girl Interrupted” and has received numerous awards for her literary works on contemporary family life.

Under the direction of Peter Simmel, UMF associate professor of theater, “Expecting Isabel” will be performed at 7:30 p.m., Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 23-25; and at 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 26, at the UMF Alumni Theater.

With a student-based cast and crew, the university production features 22 students playing more than 30 roles. Area residents in the show are Matt Black of Jay, Mark Lemos of Durham and Kathleen Powers of Lovell.

A comic sometimes tender narrative, “Expecting Isabel” tells the story of Miranda and Nick, a thirty-something Manhattan couple who decide it’s time to have a child, though Mother Nature has other ideas. As they discover that growing their family may not be as easy as expected, they struggle with the maze of modern medicine, the hope of adoption and the strain that expectation and disappointment imposes on their lives.

Winner of the American Theatre Critics Association Award for Best New Play 1999, “Expecting Isabel” also received the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays award for 1998 and the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play.

This presentation’s content is of an adult nature and suitable for mature audiences only.

Tickets are $6 for adults, $5 for non-UMF students and $3.50 for seniors. Tickets will be available at the time of the performance and may be reserved by calling the box office at 778-7465.

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