“Intimate Apparel” is opening the 2023-24 DeSales University Act 1 Theater Department season in an unparalleled fashion.

The Lehigh Valley premiere of the drama is a bold choice for a college theater production by DeSales University Head of the Division of Performing Arts Anne Lewis. The actors, production staff and director are more than up to the challenge.

“Intimate Apparel” is a profound work by playwright Lynn Nottage, the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: “Ruined,” 2009, and “Sweat,” 2017, the latter taking place in Reading, Berks County. “Intimate Apparel,” starring Viola Davis, opened in 2004 at Roundabout Theatre Company.

“Intimate Apparel” takes place in 1905 in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Esther (Maya Marino Cappello) is an expert seamstress who lives in a rooming house run by Mrs. Dickson (Gabrielle Moseley).

Sitting at the Singer, Esther sews for the elite, Mrs. Van Buren (Abagaile Ruger), and the street, Mayme (CaSandra Kay). Esther buys her cloth from a Jewish merchant, Mr. Marks (Christian Tuffy).

Esther, concerned she will become a spinster, writes letters to George (Jabari Williams), a Caribbean man. He writes back. George emigrates to the United States to marry Esther.

There’s a startling plot twist in the second act.

Director Akeem Davis (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, including Benedick, “Much Ado About Nothing,” and numerous regional theater credits) brings all the elements to the stage and modulates them beautifully: the longing of the heart, the veracity of words and personal responsibility for one’s actions. Davis explores the text with a particular sensitivity. The dialogue by Lynn Nottage is terse, vivid and incisive.

Maya Marino Cappello presents Esther as meek, but not mild, dedicated to her craft and to her self-worth. Her portrayal is of an unassuming observer until she explodes with emotional anguish.

CaSandra Kay portrays Mayme as a brash, if not insensitive, woman bucking the system by making a few bucks.

Jabari Williams brings George through a nice transition from innocent to cunning.

Abagaile Ruger mines the humor of her role as Mrs. Van Buren. Gabrielle Moseley creates a friendly and engaging presence as Mrs. Dickson. Christian Tuffy represents Mr. Marks as at once helpful and skittish.

Scenic Designer Jenna M. Snyder selects a highly-effective minimalist set, dominated by bed and sewing machine, symbolizing the play’s thematic fulcrum. Lighting Designer Eric T. Haugen brings mood and substance to the production, as does Sound Designer David M. Greenburg.

Costume Designer Leigh Paradise puts detail and panache in the turn-of-the-20th century costumes, right down to the shoes.

The “Intimate Apparel” program cover displays an exchanging function illustration you can see two ways: a corset and facial profiles of two African-American young women. It’s an M.C. Escher of the human form, a Rorschach test of your reaction to the play.

Don’t miss the elevating, sobering and entertaining experience in theater that is “Intimate Apparel.” You will see the world differently: what you wear and what others wear, how clothing makes the man or woman, and how men and women made the clothing.

The story of “Intimate Apparel” is intimate and parallel to the legacy of the Lehigh Valley silk, textile manufacturing and needle-trades industries before clothing manufacturing migrated to the southern U.S. and on to the Caribbean, South America, eastern Europe, Vietnam and China.

It’s an important consideration in light of alleged use of slave labor of more than 100,000 Uyghurs and other minorities in China and forced labor in sweatshops throughout the world to supply chain high-end fashion brands, “fast fashion” labels and consumer electronic firms whose manufacturing is said to be harmful to the environment, workers who make the products and wearers of chemically-laden clothes, as reported by the nonprofit KnowTheChain.

The theater-going experience in DeSales University Labuda Center for the Arts is a world away, superb not only for the exhilarating performance on stage and thought-provoking take-aways, but also for the professionalism of the student staff in the box office, as ticket-takers and ushers, and the facility itself. Act 1 is truly a class act.

“Intimate Apparel,” 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27-30, Oct. 4-7; 2 p.m. Oct. 1, 8; 9:45 a.m. Oct. 3, Main Stage, Act 1, Labuda Center for the Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Avenue, Center Valley. Tickets: 610-282-3192; https://www.desales.edu