For the first time ever, Penn State students will have the treat of watching a play based off a board game -- sort of.

Tonight at 11:15, the Outlaws Playwright Workshop will provide its weekly dose of student-run theatre. From the script to the wardrobe, the group is entirely student produced. After each show, the writer and director are given a chance to hear from the audience in a talk back session.

This week's show is The Game of Life, written by Jesse Cramer (freshman-mathematics). Cramer said the story is a 25-minute account of a family's life, while implementing a personified version of the board game Life. While the play isn't entirely based off of the actual board game, it was a heavy inspiration for Cramer.

"I researched the game because I haven't played in four years. With each draft I slowly started picking out specifics and putting in my own variation. It's based off the game of Life, but not word for word."

Cramer said he came up with the idea after always hearing a common theme in the audience's criticisms of various plays.

"I wrote a play last semester, and the biggest comment I got back was that they wanted more detail," Cramer said.

"Everybody always wants more detail. So I thought, 'How can I have [the audience] be involved in the lives [of the characters] and be satisfied in the end?' This just seemed obvious."

Director Jake Schwartz (sophomore-theatre) sees the play as much more than an elaborate board game.

"Essentially it's sort of a study of a relationship between a man and woman from the birth of the relationship to the death of both of them. It's what we go through as human beings pretty much crunched down into 25 minutes," Schwartz said.

The two leads in the play are Outlaws producer Tom Pogue (senior-theatre) and Katie Bucco (senior-theatre). They play the husband and wife, but what makes it interesting is that Pogue and Bucco have been dating for quite some time now.

"This will be the first time we've worked together onstage next to each other," Pogue said. "Jake called us up and asked, 'Hey, would you like to work opposite Katie?' I thought that it would be interesting. So it's kind of humorous to go through the script Game of Life, when I myself am going through the game of life with my co-star."

Working on a play with a significant other may seem like a nervous task, but Pogue isn't fazed.

"[I'm] not anymore nervous than I am for any performance. I'm more nervous in hopes that it does the playwright proud and gives the playwright the feedback he needs," Pogue said.

And speaking of the playwright and nerves, Cramer is plenty nervous about the upcoming talk back session.

"It's nerve-racking. Everybody that goes to this reads plays, so they're all intelligent about what goes into a play," Cramer said.

"There are people that tear plays apart, so you really want them to like it. If not, you get told right to your face."