The Southwest Minnesota State University Theater Program will present “Frost/Nixon,” a play by Peter Morgan on Monday, Sept. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the SMSU Fine Arts Theatre.

“Frost/Nixon” is a dramatization of the controversial interviews by British broadcaster, David Frost, with former U.S. President Richard Nixon, televised in 1977. The impeachment process began by the House of Representatives in October 1973 and continued through Aug. 9, 1974, when Nixon resigned from office. His successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him on Sept. 8, 1974. This year is the 50th anniversary of that historic occasion.

The presentation of “Frost/Nixon” will be presented one night only by SMSU students in a reader’s theater format. The play is read and performed without intermission. Admission is a free-will donation/pay what you can.

The reader’s theater performance “Frost/Nixon” is presented in partnership with the Center for Civic and Community Engagement as part of Mustangs Vote, SMSU’s voter engagement initiative. Mustangs Vote is the on-campus effort to educate and encourage SMSU students and all eligible voters to exercise their right to vote in this year’s election on Nov. 5.

The full description of “Frost/Nixon” by Dramatists Play Service is as follows:

The story British talk-show host David Frost has become a lowbrow laughingstock. Richard M. Nixon has just resigned the United States presidency in total disgrace over Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. Determined to resurrect his career, Frost risks everything on a series of in-depth interviews in order to extract an apology from Nixon. The cagey Nixon, however, is equally bent on redeeming himself in his nation’s eyes. In the television age, image is king, and both men are desperate to out-talk and upstage each other as the cameras roll. The result is the interview that sealed a president’s legacy.