The UC Davis theatre production Some Things Are Private, set to open May 5 and run through May 9, asks “What is art?” — drawing on the real story of photographer Sally Mann and the pictures she took of her young children in the nude and partially nude.

The intense controversy, including accusations of child pornography, forms the heart of the play, which premiered in 2008 at the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I. Trinity commissioned and produced the play, written by Deborah Salem Smith after she and Laura Kepley created the work.

Candice Andrews is directing the UC Davis production, which is this year’s Director’s Showcase from the Department of Theatre and Dance. Andrews also gets credit for the work that led to UC Davis’ becoming the first university to secure the rights to produce the play.

Andrews takes full advantage of the opportunity, bringing together various segments of the academic community — photography, sociology and psychol-ogy — for post-performance talk-back sessions during which the audience can join in the discussion of such questions as, “How do we determine the boundaries between art and exploitation.”

Mann has photographs at some of the finest art museums in the country, but she is perhaps best known for the images of her three children in her collection Immediate Family (1992).

Some Things Are Private weaves Mann’s words with those of her critics and supporters, all drawn from interviews and letters in the public record. Still, the play is considered a docudrama, incorporating fact and fiction.

“Since arriving at UC Davis and observing art here,” Andrews said, “I myself have been grappling with the questions ‘What is art?’ and ‘Where do we draw the line?’ Nudity in art seems to be all around me, so I’ve begun looking within, at my emotional reaction before projecting onto others.

“The play posed intriguing questions that I couldn’t answer. For instance, how does that line change when a child is placed in front of the lens? Sally Mann responds to a similar question in the play with, ‘As if there’s a line we all agree on?’”

Actor and fellow M.F.A. candidate Barry Hubbard said Andrews’ direction has enlightened him about the many layers of artistic and aesthetic reasoning behind Mann’s photographs. “I’m learning that art has real danger in it — symbolic and literal,” Hubbard said.

Scenic designer and M.F.A. candidate Gian Scarabino said: “One of the biggest creative challenges for me is the act of defining art itself and continually rediscovering who creates that artificial boundary. More importantly than division, however, how do art and life come together to create a lasting image?”

Andrews gave Scarabino one very explicit direction. “Within the set it was important to me to display contemporary local art that included adult nudes, thus raising the issue of censorship from a different perspective. Who decides that?”

The “local art” comprises black-and-white photos by Jesse Vasquez, who works in the art department.

Reporting by Janice Bisgaard, publicity manager for the Department of Theatre and Dance.

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Director’s Showcase

Some Things Are Private, directed by Candice Andrews, graduating Master of Fine Arts candidate

WHEN: 8 p.m. May 5-8 and 2 p.m. May 9

POST-PERFORMANCE TALK-BACKS: May 5 and 8

WHERE: Main Theatre, Wright Hall

TICKETS are available in advance through the Mondavi Center box office: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or mondaviarts.org. Tickets also sold at the door starting a half-hour before curtain time (pending availability).

ADVISORY: nude images, brief loud noises and minimal profanity

MORE INFORMATION: theatredance.ucdavic.edu