The cast.

Determinism and the news are the two motifs embodied by the UWEC Players’ current project, CJ Krueger’s Because of Poppy Weisz. Krueger, a UWEC senior and co-president of the Players, penned the black comedy three years ago around the question, “What if what you read in the papers isn’t exactly what happened?” The resulting script magnifies the relationships between four young New Yorkers and their ties to the grisly murder of a Capitol Hill socialite. “You have a hard time maybe rooting for anybody,” Krueger said of his characters. The piece is set in current times, reflecting the obsessive connectedness of the 21st century to the point that it “couldn’t have been written at any other time,” according to Krueger. Chasten Glezman, a UWEC transfer student who will play Paul, describes the show as more “mature” than pieces performed by his hometown community theatre, and that the audience can expect to be surprised. The nearly two-hour play runs Jan. 28 to Feb. 6 and is the Players’ longest student-produced piece since their 2007 resurrection.