STAGE THEATRE

The Cañada College Theater Arts program presents The Woman in Armor, a dark comedy set in a future America where a young woman is confronted with several choices all while a mysterious woman - or ghost - haunts her world and her consciousness. The world premier of this play was produced by Three Wise Monkeys as part of the 2005 Bay Area One Act Festival. Saturday performances will be followed by a Q&A session with the cast and playwright. Written and directed by Cañada Professor Anna Budd.

What Could Be More American than Armed Rebellion? Lily, a young woman living in a future America, discovers that she cant leave the airport. Mr. Stern, a humorless bureaucrat with the Office of Illegal Debt Management, reveals that she is being detained as an illegal debtor, her citizenship is revoked, and now she must work off her debt as a prisoner of the state, or face deportation.

But Lily and Mr. Stern are not alone in that office a mysterious woman in medieval armor appears, urging Lily to resist. Lily chooses to cooperate, thinking she can appeal to Mr. Sterns humanity. But conditions at the airport are unlivable. The food is moldy, the blankets thin and reeking, and Peter, a fellow detainee, is very sick, and getting sicker. And its looking as if there is no intention to release any detainees ever.

Lily struggles with a stark choice: adhere to her beloved principles of non-violent communication, the last remnant of her more civilized former life - or accept that Mr. Stern is unreachable, the Department corrupt beyond reason, and join the morally ambiguous underground resistance. And all the while the mysterious Woman in Armor ghost, angel, demon - haunts her world and her consciousness.