Dev Kennedy, University alumnus Class of ’82, is performing in “Teddy Ferrara,” a play written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Christopher Shinn and directed by Evan Cabnet.

The new drama centers around the student members of an LGBTQ group at a public university when they face a tragedy on campus. It explores the many issues around how the community responds — the organizations, media and minority movements — and how the truth is often manipulated to serve individual interests.

“Teddy Ferrara” will be performed at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and is in its second week of shows. It runs until March 3.

The theater offers a special $10 ticket price to all students, available through advance purchase. PlayBack, a free post-show discussion with members of the Goodman’s artistic staff, follows each Wednesday performance.

Here’s what Kennedy had to say about “Teddy Ferrara” and his experience acting in the play.

Daily Illini: Could you tell me about yourself and your experience attending the University of Illinois?

Dev Kennedy: I graduated with a degree in speech communication and political science — a double major. I didn’t study theater because I didn’t think it was material to make a living. … I was there for four years; I lived in PAR for two years and then off-campus housing for two years. … I have such a fond memory, I loved my time at U of I, loved it. It’s just a very wonderful experience for me to have gone to school there, I’m really glad I did.

DI: Can you tell me about the play you’re in now, “Teddy Ferrara”?

DK: It takes place at a university; an unnamed but large university, probably public. And it deals with a group of students, many of whom are part of an LGBTQ group. … So there is a student, who you never meet, who has killed himself by the start of the play by jumping off of the ninth floor of the library on campus. … It gets into issues of how different subgroups of the LGBTQ community deal with one another (and) how the university deals with political issues around that. Teddy ends up jumping off the same library, and then the rest of the play is about how they, the main characters, deal with that reality.

DI: Was it difficult for you to work in this play, given its heavy subject matter?

DK: I suppose it’s not unlike what happens to a doctor or a nurse or a funeral director. I mean, people that work in emotionally charged environments have a tendency to find a way to wall it off so that they are appropriately involved emotionally — engaged emotionally — but they also recognize that you can’t walk around the entire time you’re doing the show and feel like you’re depressed or you end up being pretty miserable. … So it’s sort of one of the occupational hazards that you have to deal with as an actor.

DI: Have you had any experience with or preformed in a play that centered around the LGBTQ community?

DK: Well, I did a play … (where) I played the main character, who was a gay man. … I think that’s one of the beauties of being an actor: You get the opportunity to play characters that you are not. You know, I’m straight, I’ve been married since 1986, I have a child, but you get opportunities to work out aspects of the human condition that you’re not, and that’s a wonderful part of being an actor.

DI: Would you say this play specifically targets how universities handle issues facing the LGBTQ community?

DK: I would argue that (Shinn) uses the university setting as a metaphor for how all organizations deal with, not just LGBTQ issues, but how a story gets hijacked by the media. … It’s not just about the silo of LGBTQ people wanting what they want. … We see that as a culture in lots of specific communities, and so the argument can be extrapolated outside of just the LGBTQ issue, but, you know, how do all minority groups deal with (these issues)? … Does the culture have to change to suit the needs of a few? Or is it really the responsibility of the few to adapt and to change, and how do you then change the culture at large? These are the broader issues that I think the play is really about, as opposed to a kind of linear plot. … You know, what is the media’s responsibility today where information is accessible for an infinite period of time? … How do young people that are using this new media, how do they need to learn to protect themselves from it?

DI: How has this play, taking place at a four-year public university, made you reflect on your own experience at college?

DK: This is a world that didn’t exist when I was in school. The gay community in Champaign-Urbana in ’78 to ’82 was just really beginning to become willing to go public about who they were. … But when you look at how much more out in the open people are living their lives today, it’s really pretty astounding. You know, kids in high school in my community today, there are a couple who are out of the closet. That never would have happened in the late ’70s. It just wouldn’t have happened. … The dorm floor that I lived on, in 1978-79 was a pretty (laughs) raucous, straight group of guys. But who knows who was there on the floor that had to hide.

DI: Do you think this show will mainly attract a college audience then?

DK: You know, it’s a very heavy play. It’s a thought-provoking, smart play, and you have to engage your brain in it or information will whip by you that you’ll miss and that will affect you. … You know, the playwright is asking its audience to work. I think it’s a fascinating play because it’s a deep play. It has many layers to it. And work like that in the theater is more challenging.

Sarah can be contacted at [email protected].