Write what you know.

That’s age-old advice for writers, but is it a law? An inflexible decree? Should you only write about things you’ve experienced firsthand?

That question is key to “A Jumping-Off Point,” a new play by Inda Craig-Galvan receiving its area premiere at Minneapolis’ Jungle Theater, a week after its world premiere at Round House Theatre in the Washington, D.C., area. Craig-Galvan has crafted a script both funny and thought-provoking about who has the right to tell what stories and how American popular culture curates whose stories we hear.

Vinecia Coleman in the Jungle Theater’s “A Jumping-Off Point,” which runs April 20 – May 19, 2024 at the Minneapolis theater. (Lauren B. Photography / Jungle Theater)

It takes place behind the scenes in the world of television, or whatever you want to call the current landscape of streamed original video content. While writing a hit play has put our protagonist, a young Black woman named Leslie, in the spotlight, she’s moved on to a career as a TV writer and is about to become showrunner for a new HBO Max series.

That’s when Andrew re-enters her life. They were graduate students together in playwriting, and he shows up unexpectedly at Leslie’s apartment to confront her with the accusation that her hit play was lifted from a script he presented to their cohort. Complicating the issue is that Andrew is a white man who’s written a script about Black people in the Mississippi Delta (whom he’s learned about through a series of National Public Radio stories).

So, basically, Andrew and Leslie are accusing one another of breaking the rules of writing, he claiming she’s a plagiarist, she finding him guilty of cultural misappropriation.

It’s also a comedy, and quite a funny one at that. Craig-Galvan is a very clever writer who uses levity as a leavening agent in this tale of ethical quandaries. While the central conflict is between two people who take themselves very seriously, the playwright tosses a comical wild card betwixt them in Leslie’s wisecracking best friend, Miriam. It’s to Craig-Galvan’s credit that there’s no clear hero or villain in the battle between Leslie and Andrew. Both are nuanced and complex, admirable and flawed.

After a series of impressive performances in supporting roles at the Jungle and Penumbra Theatre, Vinecia Coleman has earned the opportunity to portray a layered lead role such as this, and her Leslie is invariably intriguing. The power dynamic between her and Gabriel Murphy’s socially awkward Andrew fluctuates in fascinating fashion, tugging the audience’s sympathies to and fro.

As the production progresses, I’m betting that Coleman and Murphy will ease into their characters with more naturalism, sloughing off some of their opening-night stiffness. Encountering no such issue is Ashawnti Sakina Ford. As Miriam, she takes the TV trope of the funny friend and makes it totally believable. And much welcome amid the tense confrontation at the story’s core.

The other star of the show is Daniel Allen’s visually stimulating set, which takes us from a lecture hall to a bright apartment to a TV writing room, all in several shades of yellow and gray and framed by phrases in big block lettering. Under Sha Cage’s direction, the Jungle’s production is driven by an electrifying friction. After its 90 intermission-less minutes, make time for a healthy post-show conversation about the questions it inspires.

‘A Jumping-Off Point’

When: Through May 19

Where: Jungle Theater, 2951 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls.

Tickets: “Pay as you are,” but $98-$16 recommended; available at 612-822-7063 or jungletheater.org

Capsule: A thought-provoking comedy about who should tell what stories.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

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Two years after filming in St. Paul and the surrounding area, “Downtown Owl” will be released digitally on Tuesday.

Actors and real-life couple Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater make their directorial debut in the film, which they shot in April 2022. In addition to filming scenes at the Spot Bar and Highland Park High School in St. Paul, the crew shot elsewhere in the area, including Minneapolis, Elko New Market and Independence.

Based on the 2008 novel by essayist and North Dakota native Chuck Klosterman, “Downtown Owl” is set in 1983 in the fictional North Dakota town of Owl. It follows Julia Rabia (Rabe), a Milwaukee teacher who moves to the small town for a one-semester teaching job in order to give her husband the space to finish his doctoral thesis. Ed Harris, Vanessa Hudgens, Jack Dylan Grazer, Finn Wittrock and Henry Golding are also in the cast.

“Downtown Owl” had its world premiere in June 2023 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. It went on to play at other festivals, including the Twin Cities Film Festival in October. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and Stage 6 Films are distributing the film.

In a positive review that called it “a thoughtful, broad-canvas ensemble piece” and highlighted T Bone Burnett’s “eclectic alt-country score and soundtrack, infused with the music and spirit of Elvis Costello,” Deadline suggested it could be turned into a television show. “It’s a testament to the integrity of this likable, modest indie that it leaves us wanting to spend just a little bit more time with these people and find out what happens next,” wrote Damon Wise.

The Hollywood Reporter’s headline proclaimed “Rabe is the radiant hot-mess center of an affecting small-town tragicomedy.” Sheri Linden’s review goes on to praise the directors (“That Rabe and Linklater, accomplished veterans of stage and screen, have drawn such nuanced work from their cast is no surprise”), production designer Francesca Palombo’s “judiciously deployed meta touches that strike the intended chords and a fluent visual language for this invented small-town world (played by the Minneapolis-St. Paul area)” and cinematographer Barton Cortright’s “use of wide-screen framing in ways that refute rural cliches and embrace the barest touches of the surreal.”

In a statement released to People magazine, the filmmaking couple said: “Making ‘Owl’ was so rewarding, and we hope audiences have as exhilarating an experience watching it as we had working on it together.”

As of Tuesday, “Downtown Owl” will be available to purchase online through sites like Amazon and Fandango. While Sony has yet to announce plans, it will likely show up on a streaming service like Netflix or Hulu later this year.

Isabella McCauley was not in the running to win the Big Ten championship heading into the third and final round on Sunday in Maryland.

The Gophers sophomore was in 18th place to start the day, seven shots back of the lead.

Then she went nuclear.

The Simley grad shot a bogey-free 64 on Sunday at Bulle Rock Golf Course to earn a share of the Big Ten individual title with a three-round score of 7-under par. She shared the title with Michigan’s Monet Chun and Indiana’s Caroline Craig.

McCauley — who placed second at the Big Ten championships as a freshman en route to eventually earning a place in the NCAA Championships — is the second-ever Gophers women’s golfer to win a Big Ten title. The only other was Kate Hughes, who did so in 1989.

“Winning the Big Ten Championship is the kind of thing I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid,” McCauley said in a release. “I couldn’t be more grateful to do it with the most amazing team beside me.”

McCauley birdied her first three holes — and four of her first five — to get rolling Saturday. She finished strong, as well, birdieing three of her final four holes to put herself in position to claim a share of the title.

McCauley’s 64 was the best round of the entire tournament by two strokes. The Gophers finished ninth overall as a team.

Sunday marked McCauley’s second win of the school year after she won the Boilermaker Classic in the fall.

“What an amazing day for Bella McCauley,” Gophers coach Rhyll Brinsmead said in a release. “To come back and win the Big Ten Championship shooting a 64 is incredible effort. She has truly left her mark on the history of the University of Minnesota golf program, and she’s only a sophomore.”