Professor's Play Wins Four Awards

A Question of Taste, a one-act play by Dr. Andrew Ade, Westminster College assistant professor of English, was selected Best Play 2007 in the Fifth Annual Theatre Festival in Black and White by the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company (PPTC) at its Nov. 18 award ceremony.

The play was also recognized for Best Director (Jeannine Foster-McKelvia), Best Actor (Ben Blakey), and Best Supporting Actor (Joshua Elijah Reece).

"A Question of Taste is a political fable about modern Africa," Ade said. "Two African men of different generations and political philosophies meet while both are in police detention. They clash over important issues that motivate their resistance fighting against their national president and, despite the discovery of surprising similarities between them, end their personal encounter in violence.

"I used to live in Africa when volunteering for the Peace Corps in Zaire; part of my play draws from the personal experience I had there. Although I originally had the idea for the play while in graduate school, I have only now been able to write it. The actual composition took about three weeks this past August," he said.

This was Ade's first participation in a Pittsburgh festival. An earlier play was included in a new-works festival while he was in graduate school, and Northwestern presented a musical he co-wrote with Anthony Billera.

Ade has been with Westminster since 2003. He earned an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and a master's and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Contact Ade at (724) 946-7349 or e-mail adeaw@westminster.edu for additional information. 

Dr. Andrew Ade