About the Play:

To The Top is a full-length drama by Kathleen Warnock. The Lady Bulldogs, a college basketball team, is shooting for the national championship. From the locker room before, during and after games, we follow their triumphs and heartbreaks, betrayals and friendships.

To The Top centers around a women's basketball team at southern college. In the competitive world of Division I Women's Basketball, the Lady Bulldogs fight other teams (and each other) to be the best in the country, under the sometimes-questionable leadership of head coach Norrie Norris. Norris and her staff (assistant coach Spider Webb and trainer Alice Farrell) try to bring the best out of their freshman stars, Mary Ellen Donohue and Faith Peavy, and senior guard Julie Stankavage while avoiding the scrutiny of reporter Casey Carter, and Mary Ellen's mother Meredith. Her first full-length play, To The Top, is based on the author's experiences as a sportswriter and was a winner at the South Carolina Playwright's Festival.

To The Top was first produced in 1990 at Trustus Theater in Columbia, South Carolina during the South Carolina Playwrights Festival.

Cast: 16 female (doubling possible)

What people say:

"Explores the undue pressures of college athletics on the children involved, the added concerns of the second class status of women's athletics and, as such, the status of women forced to compete in any field typically dominated by men." — Free Times

"A grim portrait of an American institution caught with its institutional pants down." — The State

About the Playwright:

Kathleen Warnock is a New York City-based playwright and editor. She grew up in Philadelphia, and also lived and worked in the Deep South. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, where she majored in Ancient Studies. Her plays have been seen in New York City, London, Ireland, and regionally.