Following a musical in the fall, Kirkwood Community College students will experiment in drama and farce in a dark comedic production.

House of Blue Leaves will be produced three times, beginning Friday and ending Feb. 21 in the Ballantyne Auditorium on the Cedar Rapids Kirkwood campus, 6301 Kirkwood Boulevard S.W. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and students with proof of student ID, and free for Kirkwood staff, faculty, and students.

The play, written by John Guare, débuted Off-Broadway in 1971. Rick Anderson said the play is one of the playwright’s first works (it initially won the Obie and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play), and it permitted the audience to see a young writer on the verge of success in American theater. It was revived in 1986 and won a Tony.

House of Blue Leaves is set in 1964 New York, and it combines reality and dreamlike fantasy. The visit of Pope Paul VI to New York City acts as a backdrop to New Yorkers reacting to the celebrities and news reports of the papal presence. The focal point of the story revolves around a married zookeeper who dreams of writing songs for cinema productions as his AWOL son, who is drafted for the military, arrives in New York. Other dramatic points of the play include the main character being unfaithful to his wife with a woman who refuses to cook for him unless he leaves his wife and marries her.

The performing-arts team for the production includes Anderson, with Doug Anderson directing and Annee Noah in charge of costume design.

The play was a challenge for the small group because of the movement from style to style with beautiful and harsh realities.

“Collaboration is really important,” Doug Anderson said.

The group members approached the production by reading, researching, and discussing to find the best way to interpret the play — which didn’t mean they remained faithful to the script.

“Just because a playwright says doesn’t mean it has to be,” Doug Anderson said.

Rick Anderson, who has previously worked on the play, said it is a longtime favorite of his largely because he has soft spot for dark comedies. House of Blue Leaves is not only meant to entertain an audience, he said, but to serve as a teaching tool for students.

The theater season at Kirkwood Community College usually involves three varying productions, including musicals and dramas.

“I try to get three very different pieces for students to be exposed to,” Rick Anderson said.