FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE(1/97)
Contact: Bob Buseick, Director of Marjorie Lyons Playhouse, 318-869-5075 or
Lynn Stewart or Amy Boltinghouse, Centenary News Service
318-869-5120 or 318-869-5709 (day)
SHREVEPORT, LA -- Geraldine Van Tiem heads the cast of The House of Bernarda Alba, opening Feb. 6 at Centenary College's Marjorie Lyons Playhouse for a seven-performance run.
The House of Bernarda Alba, written by Federico Garcia Lorca, centers on the emotional struggle among the women of a Spanish family as they mourn the death of their husband/father. Considered one of the theatre's great classics, the play chronicles the passions unleashed among the women trapped in a life that suddenly has few chances for happiness.
Lorca, killed at the age of 37 at the onset of the Spanish Civil War, was Spain's greatest playwright/poet. The Marjorie Lyons production is begin presented in conjunction with the activities involving "Shouts From the Wall," an exhibit of posters and photographs brought to the United States from the Spanish Civil War by American volunteers. The exhibit is at the Meadows Museum on the Centenary College campus through March 9.
Performances of The House of Bernarda Alba will be at 8 p.m. on Feb. 6 and 7 and at 2 p.m. on Saturday Feb. 8. and again at 8 p.m. on Feb. 13 (with a discussion to follow), and 8 p.m. on Feb. 14 and 15. The run will conclude with a matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 16. Tickets may be reserved beginning at noon on Thursday, Jan. 30 by calling 869-5242. Tickets are priced at $12 for adults; $10 for senior citizens; $7.50 for students and $5 for children. [A 7 p.m. preview performance will be presented on Wednesday, Feb. 5 with tickets priced at $5.]
Van Tiem returns to the MLP stage as Bernarda the tyrannical mother who tightly controls her daughters. Van Tiem, a veteran of local theatre, has created memorable performances in the long-running Steel Magnolias as well as A Little Night Music, Something's Afoot, Harold and Maude, Little Foxes and And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little.
Memory Lee Streun plays the family's grandmother who has drifted off into a world filled with delusions and fantasies. Streun has appeared in many MLP productions, including Driving Miss Daisy, Marvin's Room, Suddenly Last Summer, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Madame de Sade and The Women. Streun has won two Times Drama Awards for Steel Magnolias and Arsenic and Old Lace.
The housekeeper, and Bernarda's only confidante, will be played by Mary Zapcynski, who was last seen at MLP as the Widow Corney in Oliver.
The five daughters are Miranda Shackelford, Emily Vise, Katie Hall, Brooks Ann Camper and Megan Carter. Shackelford was last seen as Jo in Little Women and was in last season's subUrbia. Vise has appeared in Assassins, the Shreveport Little Theater production of A. . .My Name is Still Alice and PAC's Sound of Music. Hall is a Times Drama Award winner for Lips Together, Teeth Apart and has additionally appeared in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, The Devils, Frankenstein and Big River. Camper has had numerous roles that include Red Scare On Sunset, Assassins, Eleemosynary, Dancing at Lughnasa, and her Times Award winning performance in Nunsense II. Carter was recently seen in Period of Adjustment and previously in subUrbia, The Devils and Assassins.
Rounding out the all-female cast is Seva May as a worker in Bernarda's house, Carol LaBorde as a nosey villager, Amy Brown as a beggar and Kathleen Zapcynski and Anne Zapcynski as two young girls.
Angie Collins, LeVette Fuller, Rynelle Williams, Valerie Zabel, Jade Cook, Lauren Toys, Katie Coffman, Heather McLelland, Catherine Cole and Jerimary Stevens appear as mourners.
Patrick McWilliams, who has won six Times Drama Awards, will direct. McWilliams has directed The Devils, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, Talk Radio, Eleemosynary, Marvin's Room, and last season's Red Scare On Sunset and subUrbia.
Set and light design is by Don Hooper, costume design by McWilliams, original music composed by Barry Butler, sound design by Jeremiah Stevens and properties by Ryan Williams. Logan Sledge is assistant director/stage manager.
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