Edelstein To Give A Lecture At Long Wharf Theatre 11/15

Long Wharf Theatre Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein will be lecturing about Athol Fugard, described by the New York Times as "the greatest playwright writing in English since Shakespeare," Sunday, November 15 from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library, 146 Thimble Island Road, Stony Creek.

Edelstein is directing the world premiere of Fugard's Have You Seen Us?, running from Nov. 24 through Dec. 20 at Long Wharf Theatre, the site of many of Fugard's world premieres in the 1970s.

Fugard, born in 1932 in Middelburg, in the Karoo desert region of South Africa, battled to bring the stories of all South Africans to the world, even under the darkest years of apartheid, that abusive system that had one set of laws for whites, and another for people of color. For his service, he was awarded South Africa's highest award, the Ikhamanga Medal in 2005. His best-known plays include Bloodknot (1961); Boesman and Lena (1969); Sizwe Bansi is Dead (1972); The Island (1973); Master Harold and the Boys (1982) My Children! My Africa! (1989). His published work includes journals, novels, short stories and screenplays. In 2006, the film Tsotsi, based on his 1961 novel, won the Academy Award and top awards at various film festivals. His plays are now part of the international canon, constantly performed, and taught in schools.
Edelstein and Fugard have cultivated a very strong artistic and personal connection, forged while working on last season's world premiere of Coming Home, and this season's production of Have You Seen Us? The connection is so strong Edelstein is considering doing Fugard's next new play, entitled The Train Driver, during Long Wharf Theatre's 2010-11 season.
"I feel permission to explore in his works," Edelstein said. "Have You Seen Us? is a departure for Athol, it being the first of his plays set in the United States, but it is a return to some of his great themes, which is the poison of hate that is in every human being. The poison of self-hate, of racial hate, the poison of hate from class superiority ... the play ends with the possibility of redemption, that it is in humans to redeem themselves, healing the broken world."

For more information about the library or the lecture, visit www.wwml.org. For more information about Have You Seen Us? or to purchase tickets visit www.longwharf.org or call 203-787-4282.

ABOUT THE THEATRE

LONG WHARF THEATRE (Gordon Edelstein, Artistic Director and Ray Cullom, Managing Director), entering its 45th season, is recognized as a leader in American theatre, producing fresh and imaginative revivals of classics and modern plays, rediscoveries of neglected works and a variety of world and American premieres. More than 30 Long Wharf productions have transferred virtually intact to Broadway or Off-Broadway, some of which include Durango by Julia Cho, the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Wit by Margaret Edson, The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer and The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn. The theatre is an incubator of new works, including last season's A Civil War Christmas by Paula Vogel and Coming Home by Athol Fugard. Long Wharf Theatre has received New York Drama Critics Awards, Obie Awards, the Margo Jefferson Award for Production of New Works, a Special Citation from the Outer Critics Circle and the Tony® Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

www.LongWharf.org