Playwright and Minneapolis native Lee Blessing (pictured) is back in the Twin Cities, working with theater students at the University of Minnesota on a new play about two famed Supreme Court justices.

The play, "Courting Harry,"explores the lifelong friendship between Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice Harry Blackmun, both St. Paul natives. The big case that tested their friendship was Roe vs. Wade.

Blessing's residency at the U culminates with a free reading of "Courting Harry" at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13 at the Rarig Center's Kilburn theater. Registration is required. Email Jenna Frankenfield at frank585@umn.edu.

The play will be produced March 2-25, 2013, at History Theatre in St. Paul, with Clyde Lund (Blackmun) and Nat Fuller (Burger). It will be directed by Ron Peluso.

Blessing, who lives in New York, is well-known to Twin Cities theatergoers for such plays as "Thief River," which was staged at the Guthrie, "Eleemosynary," "A Body of Water," "Independence," "Two Rooms" and "A Body of Water." His best-known play, "A Walk in the Woods" from 1988, was nominated for a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize.