If anyone missed PAT the play last October or wants to see it again, the play commemorating the life of the late Pat Summitt will return to the stage.
The play by Lisa Soland will run from June 18-28 in two sets of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances at The Jenny Boyd Theatre, a new state-of-the-art, intimate venue on the campus of the University of Tennessee. Tickets are available HERE, and the final weekend is selling quickly as it overlaps with the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (WBHOF) induction, which brings the luminaries of the game to Knoxville.
Former Lady Vol Candace Parker will be among the inductees on June 27, which will be one day before the 10th anniversary of the death of Summitt on June 28, 2016.
Soland, who both wrote and played the role in a review that can be read HERE, had partnered with the Pat Summitt Foundation before the first run to ensure the play would also serve as a benefit for the nonprofit. After the play ended, she attended some foundation events and heard from people who were upset they missed it the first time or wanted to see it again.
The previous nearly month-long run in 2025 took place in the Old City, but that venue was no longer available, so Soland contacted Phyllis Belanger, the rental coordinator and assistant production manager for the UT Department of Theatre and opted to book the Lab Theatre because it mirrored the size and proscenium setup – the audience views the stage directly from the front in what acts as a fourth wall – as the Old City venue.
She asked Calvin McLean, the longtime and now-retired artistic director of the Clarence Brown Theatre, to direct the second run of PAT “because I felt like that would help me a lot to take the play to the next level.” McLean mentioned moving it to the new Jenny Boyd venue.
“I thought to myself, ‘Oh my word. Jenny Boyd would be twice as big; it would be a step up,’ Soland said. “I thought, as a producer, can it be done? And Calvin believed it could. I have trust in what he thinks, so I moved forward in that direction.”
Lisa Soland as Pat reacts to the audience. (Lisa Soland photo)
Belanger took care of the venue change and that same afternoon Danielle Donehew, the executive director of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) called and suggested connecting the run to induction weekend and designating two performances as available for inductees and their families that accommodated their busy weekend. Michelle Marciniak, a former Lady Vol and CEO of the WBHOF, endorsed the idea.
“Michelle Marciniak is a powerhouse all to herself, and she loved the idea of connecting it to the inductees,” Soland said. “So, we did it, and it’s happening, and we’re excited.”
The Jenny Boyd Theatre presents a different setup and a larger stage as a thrust that projects the actor into the space, so Soland will cover a lot more ground.
“He’s an exceptional director across the board, but in this case having the stage be a thrust, and this is a real thrust, and it’s 19 feet by 19 feet,” Soland said. “It as deep as it is wide, and he’s so good at that. You’ve got audience sitting on all three sides, so I’ve got to be turning, I’ve got to be considering everybody, but similar to the intimacy that we had at the Old City Performing Arts Center, the audience is right there.
“It’s going to be an intimate, close communication between me and the audience, similar to how it was, and in some ways, even better, because the acoustics are great. I don’t need a mic, which I don’t like using one, and it’s going to seat about 250 a night.”
Lisa Soland takes in Pat Summitt statue
Like anyone who comes into the orbit of Pat Summitt in any capacity, the experience changed Soland.
“I didn’t know her personally, but when you put on a character, you do everything you can to build all the bridges to find the similarities between you and the character that you’re playing,” Soland said. “I had the privilege of writing the role, and I’m starring in it, so now I’m building the bridges as an actor, finding all the commonality.
“I don’t put on the role like you put on a raincoat. I put on the role from getting to know who she was from the inside out. To do that as an actress, I’m literally becoming her as best I can, so it’s believable, and that journey in becoming her, that is significant, and the building of the commonality, the best way to say it, she has reminded me who I am, and I had forgotten.
“When I get to heaven, I’m going to tell her thanks. She got me back on track with my life.”
Candace Parker and Pat Summitt talk during a game at Tennessee. (Pat Summitt Leadership Group photo)
For those who saw the play, the components will be the same. The difference will be the blocking, which aligns the movement, timing and spatial dynamics of the performer with the audience.
“The play is exactly the same. The written words are the same. What’s changed is the blocking, because of us moving from a proscenium to a thrust,” Soland said. “Also, you have a different director, and just like theater, if the playwright is Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams, you take the words and one director will do one thing and another director will see it another way, and that’s why theater is so exciting, and why you love it. It changes depending upon who’s directing it.
“But, of course, the actress and the play are the same, and I would say, people are going to love it even more. It’s better. It lands stronger, it’s clearer, everything about it is better, and that’s a direction you want to go.”
