If you missed the production of “A Day in the Life” during its run on campus in February, you are in luck. The play that shares the true stories of young women affected by commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking will have a second run this Sunday, April 17 and hopes to reach a new audience.

The first run of the play brought Washington University students and St. Louis community members together to hear the powerful stories of these young women, portrayed by 13 Wash. U. actors. After the 40-minute play, the audience had the opportunity to participate in panels with local community experts, like Deedee Lhamon, director of the The Covering House and sex trafficking expert, and Wash. U. professor Andrea Nichols. These panels began conversations that even the play’s director, senior Anna Richards, did not necessarily expect.

“I expected people to be shocked and hoped they would be moved, certainly. I think what I didn’t foresee was how vulnerable even the audiences were able to make themselves in the discussions after each show. They really opened up,” Richards said.

The show and the following panels were meant to start conversation and encourage action, and they appear to have done just that, as audience members inquired “how the girls got involved, how The Covering House operates, what assistance they need and how other systems (on a national level) work compared to how America’s system works.” The vulnerable stories on stage created a dialogue, one that Richards and the others involved with the show hope can continue, especially with this additional performance.

After Mary Brauninger, a Wash. U. alum, saw the play, she expressed an interest to Richards to see it performed again, but this time in West County “for more people she knows to see [it] or just performed again in general.” Along with the American Association of University Women (AAUW) (of which she is part) and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Brauninger helped secure a venue and funding for the additional performance.

Just like with its first run, this performance will strive to incite dialogue and action regarding the sexual exploitation of young women through five individual monologues. The ensemble case and the community support surrounding this play, from Brauninger to the other sponsors—AAUW, WILPF, Parkway United Church of Christ and Thyrsus Wash U—reveals a large community interested in the play’s message, as well as the power of the play’s simplicity.

This performance of “A Day in the Life” will take place at Parkway United Church of Christ, 2841 N. Ballas Rd. St. Louis, Mo., 63131 on Sunday, April 17 at 4:30 p.m.