FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (9/05)
Contact: Marjorie Lyons Playhouse, 318-869-5242, or Lynn Stewart or Kelsey Johnson, Centenary News Service, 318-869-5120 or 318-841-7265

Aristophanes' Lysistrata Will Open Centenary College's Marjorie Lyons Playhouse Season on Sept. 22

Lysistrata is a bawdy adult comedy based around the war between Sparta and Greece in the 5th Century BC. The women of Athens and Sparta have declined to fulfill their "marital duties" to their husbands until they stop the war.

Director Heather Peak has updated the production to the present time on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Ms. Peak is coming off a successful summer of directing Macbeth and Comedy of Errors at the Marjorie Lyons Playhouse.

She has cast sophomore theatre major Vanna Richardson in the title role. Ms. Richardson has been behind the scenes this past year serving, among others, as stage manager for both productions this past summer at
MLP and as stage manager for Robert Buseick's last production, The Dresser.

Theatre major cast members include Samantha Grace, Adam Boyd, Tim Broderick, Jamie Norwood, Jeni Loer, Courtney Gaston and Karyn Gehrls. Other Centenary students include Miranda Miller, Haley Young, Ashley Owens, Stephen Scarlato, Alloi Raley, Rene Mezzio, Mindy Alexis Diez, Lauren Christine Broussard and Morgana Broussard.

Don Hooper's set design from the summer productions at MLP will give its last performance. He will be adding the steps and columns of the Capitol building and opening up the background. Centenary graduate Alan Berry has assumed the shop duties of set construction and supervision of students as they learn to build scenery.

The production is being done in conjunction with the English Department and the First Year Experience at Centenary. All first-year students will be reading and studying the play.

The box office opens Sept. 15 and be open daily between noon and 4 p.m. The box office phone number is 869-5242.

Lysistrata will open Sept. 22 and play Sept. 23 and 24, all at 8 p.m., and on Sept. 25 at 2 p.m. It will continue Sept. 29 through Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. with matinee performances at 2 p.m. on Oct. 1 and Oct. 2. Ticket prices are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $5 for students.

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