Some say theater is the most vibrantly alive of art forms. There's nothing more rewarding, the argument goes, than seeing an actor's portrayal blossom into a unique person that never existed before -- right there in the room before the audience's captivated eyes.

Imagine, then, a theatre where the portrayal doesn't end with the performance, but rather allows the audience to interact with the characters on stage.

This is just the experience audiences will get when the University Park Ensemble performs The Date at 7 tonight in the HUB-Robeson Center auditorium.

"It's an interactive readers' theater," said Barry Kur, director of the ensemble and professor of theatre at Penn State. After the 20-minute performance, the cast will remain on stage and field the audience's questions and comments, while staying completely in character.

"Our purpose is primarily to empower our audience to talk about the issues," Kur said. "To discuss how their experience relates to what's on stage."

The issues the group has been performing this year in orientation programs and in classrooms include HIV prevention, alcohol awareness and academic integrity.

The subject of The Date is acquaintance rape and the different ways in which the rapist, the rape victim and their friends react to such an event.

University of Kentucky counselor Dr. Robert Ferguson conceived the characters in the play as amalgams of the many people who have come to him with similar problems over the years.

"We've always done a sexual assault/acquaintance rape piece," Kur said of the 13-year history of the ensemble, adding that it has been performing the current vignette for seven years.

Kur said the purpose of performing the piece on an annual basis is to encourage the movement toward "well-being, safety and respect." It is especially pertinent now because of the number of incidences of sexual assault at Penn State in the last year, he said.

But acquaintance rape, which is featured in The Date, is the kind of sexual assault that goes mostly unmentioned, Kur said.

"[Acquaintance rape] doesn't appear in the headlines, but it happens more often than anyone thinks," he said.

Thespians Colleen Mullen (junior-theatre) and Jacki DeForge (junior-theatre) said they, along with the two other members of the cast, have performed The Date six or seven times in both large and small venues.

"Every audience has a different spin on it," Mullen said. "Sometimes, it's hard to get [discussion] started, but it always warms up no matter what kind of group it is."

After the performance, a discussion ensues in which audience members address the actors as if they are the characters they are portraying.

Mullen said although there have been instances in which a person in the audience has gotten carried away to the point of verbally accosting a cast member, Kur routinely ensures the discussion remains a healthy, productive one.

DeForge said the nature of the audience reaction often depends on other various factors.

"It's interesting to see how what's going on in the university environment affects the show," she said, alluding to the play's last performance, which coincided with the controversy surrounding Penn State football player Anwar Phillips, who was accused and acquitted of sexual assault.

The play will be read aloud by the actors, a process that Kur said allows for audience members to truly absorb the words that the characters are saying.

DeForge said audiences will be able to empathize with the victim in the play.

"She's a normal, everyday student that finds herself in this situation," she said, adding that the play "doesn't play on stereotypes."

"It's presented in a way that's accessible to everyone," DeForge said.