For Immediate Release (10/97)
Contact: Lynn Stewart or Amy Boltinghouse, Centenary News Service, 18-869-5120 or 869-5709 or
Marjorie Lyons Playhouse, 318-869-5242
SHREVEPORT, LA--Both parts of Angels In America will be presented at Marjorie Lyons Playhouse on the Centenary College campus as the opening productions of the 1997-98 theatre season.
Part One: Millennium Approaches will play at 8 p.m. on Oct. 23, 24, 25, Nov. 5, 7. Part Two: Perestroika will be presented on Oct. 30, 31, Nov. 1, 6, 8 at 8 p.m. Both plays present the same characters and Part Two: Perestroika is a continuation and conclusion to the story begun in Part One: Millennium Approaches.
The plays were written by Tony Kushner and were the recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony Award for best production of the season in New York and numerous other National and International awards.
Director Robert Buseick has assembled a cast of 24 student and community actors for this production. Leading the cast is Youree McBride Jr. as Prior Walter, a young man with AIDS, contemplating the devastation that has entered his life. McBride is a graduate of Centenary College and has won two Times Drama Awards for his work in Talk Radio and Bent at Marjorie Lyons Playhouse. Cast as Louis Ironson, Prior's lover who runs away from the issues that affect his life, is Logan Sledge, a junior theatre major. Sledge has been seen in productions of Period of Adjustment, Little Women, subUrbia and Bent.
Steven E. Baker and Emily Vise play Joseph and Harper Pitt, a young married couple with serious problems. Joe is a young lawyer who is facing several struggles in his life--his pill popping wife who has suffered many nervous conditions, the integrity he feels for doing everything right and by the book in his professional life, and trying to comprehend his sexual awakenings as they affect his strict Mormon upbringing. Baker has been in MLP productions of Funny Girl, Merrily We Roll Along, Assassins, Bent, Red Scare On Sunset, Oliver, and Period of Adjustment. Vise has appeared in The Diary of Anne Frank, House of Bernarda Alba, and Funny Girl at MLP and at Shreveport Little Theatre in A My Name Is Still Alice and the Performing Arts Center production of The Sound of Music. Both are theatre majors at Centenary.
Patric McWilliams will portray Roy Cohn the real life lawyer instrumental in the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s and responsible for the execution of the accused spies, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. McWilliams has appeared in numerous productions, including Funny Girl, Bent, Sweet Bird of Youth, I Hate Hamlet, The Visit, and Merrily We Roll Along.
Khaaliis K. Cherry makes his Shreveport stage debut as Belize, a nurse who is Prior's best friend. Khaaliis may be remembered for his stand-up comedy routines performed at local clubs in the 1980s.
Pamela Moore Peak will create the role of Hannah Porter Pitt, the Mormon mother faced with the responsibility of admitting a number of changes in her life. Ms. Peak is a senior English teacher at Caddo Magnet High School and last appeared at MLP in Prelude To A Kiss.
The Angel will be played by Katie Hall, a Centenary graduate who is a Times Drama Award winner for her role in Lips Together, Teeth Apart at MLP.
Others in the cast include Jamie Sanders, Daniel Ruiz, George O'Connor, Megan Luft, Stanton Dossett, Vanessa Keller, Eric A. Lee, Miranda Shackelford, Erik Champney, Earleen Bergeron, Zak Lupo, Jeff Noles, Jason Lowe, LeVette Fuller, Dani Garza, Katie Sigler.
Both plays are being served by the same production team: Robert Buseick, director; Don Hooper, set and light design; Patric McWilliams, costume design; Ryan Williams, assistant to the director and properties; and Ken Scruggs, sound.
The box office, open from noon to 4 p.m., will open on Monday, Oct. 13. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for senior citizens, and $7.50 for students. Angels In America is recommended for mature audiences. Call 318-869-5242 for ticket reservations.
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