Centenary College’s Marjorie Lyons Playhouse Announces Dates, Cast for Pride's Crossing

Patric McWilliams directs Centenary students, alumni, and community members 

SHREVEPORT, LA -- Centenary College's Marjorie Lyons Playhouse has announced performance dates and cast member for its upcoming production of Tina Howe's Pride's Crossing.

Performances will be held Feb. 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 18 at 2 p.m., with a special preview at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 7.  Preview tickets are $5 each.  Regular performance tickets are $13 for adults, $11 for senior citizens, $8 for students and children 12 and under, $6. 

The box office will be open from 12 to 4 p.m. starting Feb. 1.  Tickets may also be reserved for the play by calling 318-869-5242. Performances are free to Centenary faculty, staff, and students. 

The play is about Mable Tidings Bigelow, who at 90 insists on celebrating her daughter and granddaughter's annual visit with an archaic croquet party. As the drama unfolds, Mabel relives her past in vignettes, subtly interweaving past and present to reveal the moments of opportunity lost and love rejected that define her life.  

A vibrant portrait of Mabel takes shape: her flashes of wit and humor, resilience, disappointments, youthful spunk and geriatric willfulness. Her Boston blue-blood family expected daughters to applaud from the sidelines, but Mabel had her shining moment when she became the first woman to swim the English Channel.  However, her willfulness did not extend to rejecting a socially ideal fiancée for love.

Patric McWilliams, who has received Times Drama Awards for best director for Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Funny Girl, and 42nd Street, directs Pride's Crossing. The play won the 1998 New York Drama Critics Award for Best American Play.  Don Hooper, winner of numerous TDA's for technical productions, designs the set and lights.  Katie Coffman is the assistant to the director and stage manager.

Anne Gremillion, cast as Mabel, was last seen at MLP in The Diary of Anne Frank.  She  has received five TDA's for her performances in Vivat! Vivat! Regina, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Heiress, Private Lives and All The Way Home.

Seva May plays Maud Tidings, Mabel's mother.  Seva has received four TDA's for her performances in Evita, Chicago, Funny Girl and The Little Mermaid and was last seen at MLP in Nine.

In his MLP debut, Patrick Maxey plays Gus Tidings, Mabel's father. He was last seen in the Peter Pan Players production of Aladdin.  

Zac Lupo and J.W. Steves play Mabel's brothers, Frazier and Phineas Tidings. Lupo, a theatre major,  was last seen at MLP in Dracula. Steves, a math major and theater minor,  was in the recent production of As Bees in Honey Drown.

Heather Peak plays Julia Renoir, Mabel's granddaughter.  Heather  received a TDA for her performance as Caliban in The Tempest and received nominations for her work in The Devils and Lips Together, Teeth Apart.  She was last seen in MLP in As Bees in Honey Drown.

Jessica Maxey, last seen at MLP in Coastal Disturbances, plays Minty Renoir, Mabel's great-granddaughter.  She was in the recent Peter Pan Players production of Aladdin and received a TDA nomination as Jimminy Cricket in Pinocchio.

Vanessa Keller plays Vita Bright, Mabel's housekeeper. Vanessa has received two TDA nominations for her work in Picasso at the Lapin Agile and 42nd Street. She recently appeared in MLP productions of As Bees in Honey Drown and Nine.

Briggs Mobley, a junior at Caddo Magnet High School, makes his MLP debut as West Bright, the housekeeper’s son.  He appeared in East Bank Theatre's  production of Hyman Kaplan.

Candace Higginbotham plays Mary O'Neill, Mabel's Irish cook. She won a TDA for her performance in A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur and received nominations for her work in Fiddler on the Roof, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Painting Churches. She was seen last season in Shreveport Little Theatre's production of Steel Magnolias.

Abbey Broussard plays Mary's daughter, Pru.  She was nominated for a TDA for her performance in last season's production of How I Learned to Drive.

Mabel's aged friends Robert Buseick, Dot Hall, Patricia Peyton and Patrick Leray play Chandler Coffin, Kitty Lowell, Pinky Wheelock and Wheels Wheelock. Buseick received a TDA nomination for his performance in Picasso at the Lapin Agile and is chairman of the Theatre/Speech/Dance Department at Centenary. Dot Hall has received two TDA's for her performances in Foxfire and Anastasia, both at East Bank. Patrica Peyton and Partrick Leray are both making their MLP debuts.  Leray was in the recent Peter Pan Players production of Aladdin.

Josh Talley plays the younger version of Chandler Coffin. Talley is a junior theatre major at Centenary and most recently appeared in Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.

Patrick Kirton plays Porter Bigelow, Mabel's husband. He received a TDA nomination for his performance in The Subject was Roses at East Bank.  He was in the MLP production of 42nd Street.

Josh Porter plays David Bloom, Mabel's trainer for her swim across the English Channel. Porter has appeared this season in As Bees in Honey Drown and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. Porter received a TDA nomination for his performance in Grand Hotel.

Jim Montgomery is the voice-over for Dr. Peabody and has won TDAs for The Diary of Anne Frank, Peter Pan, A Little Night Music and The Heiress. 

Molly Melancon performs the voice-over for Emma Bigelow, Mabel's daughter.   Melancon was in the MLP production of How I Learned to Drive and was in the recent Peter Pan Players production of Aladdin.

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