'LADY DAY' & PECONG Set for Bayou Theatre Company's Third Season

The Bayou Theatre Company returns with its third season entitled "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Exploring the Complexities of Womanhood". With a season focused on female-centered stories, the season will open with Lanie Robertson's riveting one woman play with music LADY DAY AT THE EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL, followed by PECONG by Steve Carter, a resetting of the myth of Medea. The season will also feature audience development programs such as cast talkbacks, symposiums and Pay What You Can discount performances TBA.

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In LADY DAY AT THE EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL, the cold tones of the blues meets the heat of the night in this one-woman play about the greatest Jazz singer that ever lived, Billie Holiday. Set in a seedy bar in Philadelphia, Lady Day sings audience favorites such as "God Bless The Child", "What A Little Moonlight Can Do" and "Strange Fruit" while occasionally breaking from her concert to tell stories of the highs and lows of her career and gulp down some liquid courage. Destined to be a marvelous night of music and intimate storytelling, LADY DAY AT THE EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL is not a show you want to miss. The production features direction by Roshunda Jones and Musical Direction by Mark Williams.

Roshunda Jones, a Wharton native, graduated from Prairie View A&M University with a B.A. in Theatre and Masters in Educational Administration. Jones currently serves as the Playworks/Musical Works Chair and Student Leadership Co-Facilitator for Texas Thespians. In addition, she was the director of the Litefooter youth program at the Plaza Theatre for eleven years.

This is her twelfth year teaching. And each of years has been with Aldine ISD. In 2014, Jones was a finalist for Aldine ISD Secondary Teacher of the Year. Additionally, in both 2009 and 2014, she served as Carver Magnet High School's teacher of the year. Under her direction, the Carver Magnet High School theatre troupe Panther Players #6753 has been successful on the State and National Level at UIL One Act Play, Tommy Tune Awards, Texas Thespian Festival and International Thespian Festival.

During her limited free time, she teaches acting classes at the Humphrey School of Musical Theatre and works as an actor/director in the South Texas Area Theatre scene. She has been honored with a Proclamation from the City of Wharton for the work she's done in the community.

Some of her favorite directorial credits include BRING IT ON (TUTS Humphrey School), MEMPHIS, IN THE HEIGHTS, COLOR PURPLE, HAIRSPRAY, SWEET CHARITY & PORGY. She would like to thank her supportive parents (Errol & Rose Mary) and mentor in theatre C. Lee Turner.

LADY DAY writer Dr. Lanie Douglas Robertson is an American playwright, actor, and educator. Born in Knoxville, Iowa in 1936, Robertson attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas from 1955 to 1957. Robertson has written over 30 plays for regional and Off-Broadway theater. The subject matter of his work reflects his interest in historical figures and history in general. THE INSANITY OF MARY GIRARD (1976), LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR & GRILL (1984), NASTY LITTLE SECRETS (1985), ALFRED STIEGLITZ LOVES O'KEEFE (1988), and NOBODY LONESOME FOR ME (1995) are among his better-known works. His plays have been produced in New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia and in towns in Virginia, Alaska and Maine. Internationally, his work has been produced in Canada, England, France, Australia, and Japan.

LADY DAY AT THE EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL will run at the Ovations Night Club on July 28th, 29th, 30th and August 4th, 5th, and 6th at 8:00 p.m nightly.

The Bayou Theatre Company presents the Houston premiere of PECONG by Steve Carter. PECONG is full of magic, myth and mystery blended together in this thrilling adaptation of the classic Greek tale of Euripides' Medea. In this version, set in the Caribbean at the turn of the century, Mediyah is a Voodoo Priestess under the spiritual supervision of her grandmother, Granny Root, when she falls desperately in love with the handsome stranger Jason. She uses her powers to help Jason win the annual "Pecong" competition, where players use rhyme and verse to hurl insults at their competitors in hopes to become the Calypso King, against her twin brother Cedric.

Chaos ensues when Jason falls in love with another woman and rejects the very pregnant and devoted Mediyah. Making its Houston premiere, Carter's spellbinding adaptation is jam-packed with color, comedy and charisma. Reminiscent of last year's production of PASSING STRANGE, this show will feature young artists in cohesion with the company's mission of exposing youth to theatre. PECONG will be directed by Bayou Theatre Company's own Executive Director, Trey Morgan Lewis.

Trey Morgan Lewis is a student at Sam Houston State University with a major in Theatre Arts. He also serves as the Executive Director of The Bayou Theatre Company and the Artistic Director of the FADE TO BLACK Playwriting Festival. He is also a member of American Association of Community Theatre. Some of his favorite performance credits are PASSING STRANGE and FENCES for The Bayou Theatre Company, THE PIANO LESSON at Prairie View A&M University; LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, RUINED, MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, THE WIZ, SWEET CHARITY, THE DARKER FACE OF THE EARTH, and DEARLY DEPARTED at G.W Carver Magnet High School. He was nominated Best Actor for the role of Mister in the G.W. Carver's 2013 production of THE COLOR PURPLE by the Theatre Under the Stars' Tommy Tune Awards committee. He has received over 8 UIL One Act Play Competition acting awards. Upon graduating from Sam Houston State University, he wishes to pursue his Masters degree at New York University with a concentration in Musical Theatre.

Horace E. "Steve" Carter, Jr. was born November 7, 1929 is an American playwright, best known for his plays involving Caribbean immigrants living in the United States. His professional career as a playwright began in 1965 at the American Community Theater with the production of the short play TERRACED APARTMENT. Since then he has gone on to win several awards. They include: 1990 Jeff Award (Best New Work) for PECONG, 2001 National Black Theatre Festival Living Legend Award, he has also received recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts.

PECONG will be performed at the Frenetic Theater on August 12th, 13th, 18th, 19th, 20th at 8:00 p.m nightly.