The World was Yours at Hatbox Theatre

The World Was Yours by William Ivers:  a competition between three diverse artists vying for the same grant. Adley Schwartz, an aging art professor, hopes the grant funds will enable him to honor a personal promise to a loved one before it is too late while also providing a final chance for personal fulfillment. Joy, and idealistic young firebrand, hopes the opportunity will open doors for her to change the world, an endeavor she felt was stymied when she received a failing grade in Schwartz’s class. Z-Jones, a legendary and mysterious guerrilla graffiti artist, needs legitimacy and stability, for which she is willing to compromise her legacy of rebellion and innovation and her own sense of morality. Watching from the ether, internally feuding and commenting on the action, are Bob Ross, Salvador Dali, and Andy Warhol, three artists whose own work received equal measures of praise and disdain on their lifetimes. As the tension mounts, and the oft-conflicting values of the artists gestate in surprising ways, the notions that reputation, values, and ethics are complexly inter-woven reveal how we are all forced to make choices that reflect the influence of contradictory ideals.