Lisa Soland, an accomplished playwright and actor, is one week away from the debut of her one-woman, one-word play called PAT – yes, that Pat – with the pieces coming together to portray a legendary Tennessean.

Soland has experience in that genre. She wrote “Sergeant York: The Play,” which debuted in 2018 in Knoxville, toured the United States to help commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I and included performances in Pall Mall, Tennessee, the hometown of Alvin York in Fentress County.

York, who was born in 1887 and died in 1964, became one of the most decorated U.S. Army soldiers of World War I, earning a Congressional Medal of Honor for his herculean efforts in a battle in Argonne, France, in 1918.

Her latest play about Pat Summitt, the iconic coach for Lady Vols basketball for 38 seasons, will run Oct. 3-26 at Old City Performing Arts Center located at 111 State St., in downtown Knoxville. Tickets and information are available HERE.

Soland grew up in a military family and was the sixth of seven children – the second to youngest like Summitt – of Norman and Ann Soland, who were married for 71 years. Her father, who served in World War II at the age of 18 and flew the Berlin Airlift, passed away in 2022 at the age of 95 from Alzheimer’s disease. Her mother is now 96.

“My father was in the Air Force, so all of us were born on different Air Force bases all over the country,” Soland said. “I can’t really say where I’m from except I spent most of my time in Northern Illinois. I’ve kind of got a Midwestern dialect going, so I’ve worked on her accent.”

Soland’s birth certificate lists Cheyenne, Wyoming, as her place of birth. The seventh child, her younger brother, was born on an Air Force base in Massachusetts.

While Norman Soland was later stationed in Vietnam, he met a man from Illinois who told him that he should go into farming. Her father rented a dairy farm from the man in Richmond, Illinois, on the Wisconsin border, and Lisa Soland lived there from the age of 5 until she left for college.

An athlete in high school, she excelled in track, volleyball and basketball at Burton Community High School and earned college scholarship offers for basketball and volleyball.

“I grew up in farm country and our high school was made up of three different towns, so there were 64 kids in my class,” Soland said.

Lisa Soland sits alongside the sideline at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. (Lisa Soland photo)

Soland knew that while she was a very good athlete, a future in sports didn’t seem likely, so she turned her career focus to theater.

“When I was 16, I did a musical called ‘The Boyfriend,’ and it’s one of those magical theater experiences that anybody in show business had, which locked them in, and I got locked in,” she said. “I did a pratfall, and the whole place burst out laughing. It was like I found exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I did every show I could.

“My high school drama teacher said, ‘Get ahold of every play you can and read them.’ Back then there wasn’t any internet, but I started reading plays and doing community theater. I had to make a decision about whether to go into athletics or study theater.”

She chose Florida State, earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts to pursue acting and then moved to Los Angeles. Her website can be viewed HERE and outlines her career on several pages. Photos show Soland with actor Burt Reynolds, actor and comedian Charles Nelson Reilly and playwright William Luce.

“I got married out there, and then my husband was offered a promotion to transfer,” Soland said. “His company had acquired a company in Oak Ridge, so we came here 16 years ago.”

That placed Soland in the state of Summitt. While Soland knew who Summitt was, when she arrived in Knoxville, Summitt was nearly at the end of her coaching career. Soland never got the chance to meet her.

“I did not, and I regret it,” Soland said. “But I’ve been talking to her a lot lately while I’m doing this project, and she doesn’t give me any sympathy.”

Greg Helton, a big Summitt fan, played the role of York in Soland’s one-man play. He wasn’t fond of wearing a red wig night after night on stage.

“I remember saying to him one time, ‘Well, maybe someday you can get me back,’ ” Soland said. “He looked at me like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘Well, Pat Summitt.’ ”

PAT the play postcard.

Soland began writing the play about Summitt six years ago. Playing the role of the actor didn’t cross her mind.

“It takes a particular person to be able to put it on the stage, and there has to be a lot of action,” she said. “I wrote about seven pages, and that’s actually about 20 minutes of a play that’s on stage. I thought it was OK, you never really know what you have until you put it up on the stage and you hear it.”

Soland got discouraged, entered a bit of a funk and set it aside. The inspiration returned while inside a KARM store in Knoxville. As one of seven children, she had long been in the habit of thrift shopping. While looking at some dishes, Soland saw a red wig.

“I wonder if this is a sign of encouragement,” Soland said. “I looked at the price. It was three bucks. I’m not going to lose much to just pick it up. I bought it and stuck it in the freezer to make sure there was nothing living in it. And then I put it on, and I started reading some of my dialog, and I recorded it and sent it to a couple of friends, Greg included.

“He said, “You’ve got to do this.’ I wasn’t even thinking of me doing it. I was just going to write the play. I tried to forget about it, because there was a sense that I know myself as an artist, and I know how much people loved her. I thought it would be overwhelming, and I might not have the confidence to be able to execute it.”

Soland’s husband, Deryk, suggested she finish the play without any obligation to do it. That seemed like sound advice, and Soland wrapped up the writing early in 2025.

He also mentioned that she should reach out to the Pat Summitt Foundation, which has blessed the project as have Joan Cronan, women’s athletics director emeritus at Tennessee, and Debby Jennings, the longtime chief of media relations for Summitt and Lady Vols historian.

“I wasn’t going to do it without it,” Soland said. “That’s how firm I felt about it.”

She also held a first reading for Knoxvillians Bob Bell, a radio host, and Roger Cunningham, a businessman.

“They were crying, and they told me that it was like being in the room with Pat,” Soland said. “They were so deeply moved. It still is surprising to me that people say I look like her. I never would have thought that.”

The promotional postcards for the play nailed Summitt’s eyes and lips.

“She carried tension in her mouth, so I make sure I do that,” Soland said.

While finishing the play and preparing to bring “PAT” the play to life, Soland immersed herself in every book about Summitt, watched videos, especially on YouTube, and talked to those who knew her. That led to a comical exchange with Helton as she parsed the words Summitt said with a Southern accent.

“She’s got a locker room speech that I watched so many times, and she says in it, ‘Every possession counts. It’s a game of possessions. It’s also a game of wills.’ So, I typed it all out, game of wheels. I said to Greg, ‘What does she mean by wheels? And he says, wills, w-i-l-l-s.”

Debby Jennings, Lisa Soland in character and Joan Cronan. (Lisa Soland photo)

Soland emptied her basement and used it as a setting to practice. She also created set pieces, including Summitt’s orange stool and made sure to find the correct shade of orange. Soland knows how beloved Summitt is and wants to present an accurate portrayal of the Volunteer State icon.

“Whenever I get scared or afraid, I remind myself that it’s OK to be afraid, but that preparation will help me deal with that,” Soland said. “I think, ‘What would Pat Summit say to me?’ She’d say, ‘Suck it up, buttercup. You’re going to be all right.’ ”

“Move-in day,” as it called, will come Monday, Sept. 29, at the Old City Performing Arts Center. While tickets are available at the door, advance purchases online are recommended for fast entry. The four-week run, four-days-a-week play is a big lift, but Soland has prepared for the month.

Lisa Soland painted a signature orange stool for the play.

“I’ve been in training in a way,” she said. “I work every day at it. When I was young in my 20s and 30s, that’s when I was pursuing acting, and then I morphed into being a playwright. When I taught playwriting at Maryville College, one of my students said to me, this is like in 2010, he said, ‘You are the Pat Summitt of playwriting.’

“I didn’t really know much about her at the time, but I knew she was intense. When you hire an actress to do a role, you’ve got to hire somebody who has the same essence, because there’s some things you cannot pretend. I’ve always been a very intense person, and I have tried to adapt to people by softening myself. It’s actually a relief to be able to play somebody who’s intense.”

The four-week run allows people plenty of time to pick a date to see the play. Word-of-mouth also is vital for a play’s ongoing attendance, so get a ticket, take a friend and tell others about it.

Soland has channeled Summitt’s singular focus. Theater and Lady Vol fans will want to show up.

“First thing you figure out is what their life purpose was,” Soland said. “Well, that’s pretty obvious with her. She had an incredibly strong impact on everybody that came within her circle, and it was a force for good.

“You figure that out, and then you figure out what made her that. How did she get to be that person that made that impact? That’s how I approached the play.”

Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press and a 10th anniversary edition will be released in 2026.