EMPORIA — Dustin Bittel of Ellis was part of the Emporia State University production of “Family Furniture.”

The play’s author A.R. Gurney – who passed away in June – is an audience favorite, and ESU Theatre has produced several of his works including “The Dining Room,” “Love Letters” and “Sylvia.”

“Family Furniture” was inspired by Gurney’s own life and the culture of the 1950s when he was a young adult. The show focuses on a young adult brother and sister pair who must come to terms with traumatic events going on in their family. The potential of a mother’s infidelity and a father’s apathy threatens to divide a seemingly normal, nuclear family in a society where keeping up with appearances can be more important than honesty.

Bittel, a senior theater major, was the production stage manager.