English Professor's Play Published
Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2010
A Question of Taste, a one-act play written by Dr. Andrew Ade, Westminster College associate professor of English, was published in the spring 2010 issue of Arts & Letters: Journal of Contemporary Culture.
A Question of Taste is a fable about the violent political chaos disrupting the most troubled countries in Africa today. Two men of different generations argue out their antithetical approaches to putting their country back on track. Despite some breakthroughs in their thinking, their encounter ends disastrously.
The play first appeared at the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company's 2007 Theater Festival in Black & White, where it won four awards, including Best Play.
A Question of Taste won a nationwide competition for new one-act plays, poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction sponsored by Arts & Letters, a literary journal. In addition to a cash prize, the award included publication of the play in the journal and a production of the play on the campus of Georgia College and State University March 12-13.
"It was exciting enough to have the play succeed in Pittsburgh, and this follow-up only sweetens the experience of writing the play," he added. "I lived and worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) right after my college graduation, and that experience informed the play and expresses my love for that chaotic country. The support for the work, first in Pittsburgh and now from Arts & Letters, has been very heart-warming, to say the least."
Earlier this year, Ade was awarded a Kennedy Center National Teaching Artist Grant. He plans to use the grant for a residency at a writers' colony this summer, where he will complete a second African-themed play.
Ade, who joined the Westminster faculty in 2003, 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.
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