USC Aiken Theatre season opener features Pulitzer Prize-winning play
AIKEN, S.C. – The University of South Carolina Aiken Theatre Department opens its 2026-27 season with Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “How I Learned to Drive,” directed by Mary Fran Crook. Performances, held at 7 p.m. Oct. 1-3 and 2 p.m. Oct. 4 in the O’Connell Theatre at the Etherredge Center, will contain mature content.
The play is a wildly funny, surprising and ultimately devastating story of survival, memory and the lasting effects of childhood trauma, told through the perspective of Li’l Bit, a woman in her early 30s. The show’s mature content explores Li’l Bit’s complicated relationship with her Uncle Peck and the ways that relationship continues to shape her understanding of herself and her past.
“‘How I Learned to Drive’ is a remarkable example of what live theatre can do,” said Crook.
“It can make us laugh, challenge our assumptions and invite us to look at difficult experiences from unexpected perspectives. Paula Vogel has created a deeply human story about memory, survival and the complicated ways we carry our past with us.”
The play incorporates flashbacks, monologues and a heightened sense of the surreal, resulting in an intimate theatrical exploration of how memory can both preserve and distort our experiences and how confronting the past can become part of the process of moving forward. The production asks audiences to consider not only what happens to us, but also how we remember, interpret and ultimately survive those experiences.
“Vogel handles extraordinarily difficult material with an unusual combination of humor, tenderness and honesty,” Crook said.
“The play is ultimately about more than what happened to Li’l Bit. It is about the person she becomes and her ability to understand her own story on her own terms.”
At the center of the story is the metaphor of learning to drive. As Li’l Bit learns the rules of the road from Uncle Peck, she simultaneously navigates the far more complicated rules of adulthood, relationships and survival. Vogel deftly balances humor and painful honesty, creating a work that confronts difficult subject matter without allowing trauma to become the sole definition of its central character.
“How I Learned to Drive” contains mature subject matter and language that some audience members may find disturbing. The production deals directly with themes of childhood abuse and trauma and may not be appropriate for all audiences.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for non-USCA students, and free for USCA students.
For more information, contact Paul B. Crook at [email protected] or 803-641-3305.