“I & You,” July 15 through 24

Thursday, July 15, through Saturday, July 24

The Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL

Described by the Washington Post as “sharp and funny” with a “buoyant spirit,” author Lauren Gunderson's two-character dramedy I & You enjoys a July 15 through 24 run at the Black Box Theatre, the show's Moline engagement sure to demonstrate why DC Theatre Scene said it delivered “a validation of the human experience” and “the best thing a play can offer: We might be better people after seeing it.”

As I & You opens, a young man named Anthony arrives unexpectedly at his classmate Caroline's door bearing a beat-up copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass – an urgent assignment from their English teacher. Homebound due to illness, Caroline hasn't been to school in months. But she is as quick and sardonic as Anthony is athletic, sensitive, and popular, and as these two let down their guards and share their secrets, their seemingly mundane poetry project unlocks a much deeper mystery that has brought them together. I &You consequently grows into a beautiful ode to youth, life, love, and the strange beauty of human connectedness, and is filled with what DC Metro Theatre Arts deemed “striking twists and turns along the progression of the rapid-paced work [that] are astonishing, breathtaking, and mind-blowing.”

Making her Black Box Theatre directing debut with I & You is Kayla Jo Pulliam, a frequent on-stage presence at the venue who was previously featured in Love, Loss, & What I Wore, Three Viewings, and The Turn of the Screw. Appearing as Caroline in her first Black Box production is Adrienne Jane, who recently co-starred in the Playcrafters Barn Theatre drama Princeton's Rage, while Anthony is portrayed by Michael Alexander, a veteran of the theatre's War of the Worlds: A Radio Play whose are stage credits include roles in the QC Theatre Workshop's Topdog/Underdog and Reefer Madness. The Black Box Theatre's co-founders Lora Adams and David Miller, meanwhile, respectively serve as I & You's set and lighting designer, while the show's set was constructed by Michael Kopriva and its costumes designed by Jacqueline Isaacson.

I & You will be staged Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., admission is $13-16, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)284-2350 and visiting TheBlackBoxTheatre.com.