KCC Theatre presents "Pando"

Kellogg Community College will present the world premiere of the original play “Pando” this month on campus in Battle Creek.

The play is an original work written by KCC Theatre professor and Theatre Program Coordinator Brad Poer and will run for six showings March 15-17 and 22-24 in the Binda Performing Arts Center, on campus at 450 North Ave. in Battle Creek. Friday and Saturday shows will start at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday shows will start at 3 p.m.

Tickets are $10 each for students, KCC faculty and staff and seniors, and $15 each for the general public. They can be purchased onsite before each show or reserved in advance through the KCC Theatre Box Office by calling 269-965-4154.

Proceeds from ticket sales will go toward defraying the cost of travel for those participating in the August 2025 KCC Theatre trip to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, where a shortened version of “Pando” will be performed for international audiences.

Poer, who in addition to writing the show will also direct it, calls “Pando” a “philosophical comedy set in the many worlds of video games.” It consists of six short one-act plays, each set in a different video-game-inspired universe and connected via a handful of short scenes between them.

A core group of nine actors play the characters in the games, Poer said, while other actors play the humans “playing” the games on a couch.

The play is “a comedy about how to translate the digital world into the analog world, and how imagined worlds can help us become better humans in the real world,” he said.

“Within the games themselves, there are lessons from ancient and contemporary philosophy concerning what it means to be human today and how to process the ups and downs of life. Content-wise, this premiere production is aiming at the Pixar template, with lots of laughs for kids and emotional depth for grownups. Though it’s set with video games as a backdrop, it’s aimed just as much at those with no interest in games as it is for lifelong gamers like myself.”

“Pando” is Poer’s first original work since his 2017 adaptation “Antigone: Closure,” which was also produced at KCC. Written so that nearly anyone can play any role, and with allowances made in the script for the actors to alter dialogue to fit their own preferences, Poer said the play was originally inspired by a conversation he had with a friend in graduate school.

“We both loved video games and thought it was sad that there wasn’t more theatre about gaming,” he said. “There’s a lot of natural crossover when it comes to role playing and figuring out who we want to ‘be’ when we play games, not unlike actors figuring out how to portray someone else.”

Individuals who can’t make a show but who would like to donate directly to support the group’s upcoming trip to Scotland can email Poer for details at poerb@kellogg.edu.

For more information about the upcoming production, contact Poer or visit the KCC Theatre Facebook page at facebook.com/KCCTheatre.