LCC Performing Arts presents “Layers, or The Casserole Play,” by Scott C. Sickles for its season opener. This production will serve as the play’s world premiere, having been developed through workshops and readings.

“This play made me laugh out loud the first time I read it, so I knew I had to direct it,” said director Paige Tufford. “The comedy is over the top and full of silliness, which I love, and it’s also a huge challenge to the three actors portraying 20-plus characters.”

Performances will be held in the Black Box Theatre on Oct. 9-11 and Oct. 16-17, beginning at 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free, and audience members should visit the box office to pick up a seat voucher for entry into the theater.

The play focuses on the real life of Elmire Jolicoeur, a French-Canadian immigrant who, in 1866, invented the precursor of the modern casserole in Berlin, New Hampshire. OR DID SHE? A present-day journalist's curiosity leads her to discover the truth between Jolicoeur's legend and her life. This docupageant dramatizes that life, that search and that legend with high theatricality, examining how women are portrayed by history and the media, and how in a "post-fact" society, the truth still matters even if that truth seems trivial. This fast-paced comedy is filled with quick-witted dialogue and a town full of characters, all played by three actors.

Sickles, an accomplished playwright, is an LGBTQ/neurodivergent/biracial Korean American writer. He has received five consecutive Writers Guild of America Awards for the daytime serial General Hospital and numerous Emmy Award nominations. For more than 30 years, his plays have been performed across the U.S. as well as internationally.