Last year, ISU faculty and students collaborated to perform “1972,” a musical written by Clark Ford, associate professor of food sciences. Ford and his cast return this semester for a staged reading of the show’s sequel, “1983.”

The musical tells the tale of the O’Clark family and their struggle to overcome the hardships of life, which include the death of a spouse, divorce, marriage and relationships. A full-length reading of the play will be performed at Unity Church of Ames on Friday at 4 and 7 p.m..

“It is a celebration of love, life and spirit,” Ford said. “Politics, religion and rock ‘n’ roll all come into play as conflicts arise and get resolved, and life goes on.”

”1983” is a continuation from Ford’s previous musical “1972,” which followed the O’Clark family from the summer to Christmas of 1972. In “I983,” the show starts at New Years and continues until summer, Ford said.

Ford also said most of the characters form “1972” will return except for one. The death of character Robert O’ Clark turned out to be problematic for Ford.

“I struggled with killing off the father. He was such a dominant figure in ‘1972’ that I wasn’t sure the show would work without him,” Ford said. “As it turns out, he is the topic of much conversation and song in ‘1983’ and so is still there, ‘in spirit’.”

Stephanie Bridges, an IT analyst at Iowa State, will return to portray the character Janice in the show.

“She’s a friend of Marnie’s [the oldest daughter in the family] and in the first play, they were lovers, and now she has come back to town after being gone for 10 years.”

Bridges sings with Ford in the Ames Choral Society and was approached to play the role of Janice, to which she agreed.

“It’s been fun,” Bridges said. “It’s been fun to try and find my inner Janice.”

Ford said the music this time around will be different than his previous work.

“Musically, I actually like the music for ‘1983’ better than the music for ‘1972,’ and I loved the music for ‘1972’. In ‘1983’, the music just keeps coming: rock, blues, beautiful ballads and also hymns.”

“1983”

Where: Unity Church of Ames

When: Friday at 4 and 7 p.m.