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Lex-Ham Theater/MN Historical Society Hosts Staged Reading of OUR AMERICAN COUSIN Tonight
By: BWW News Desk Apr. 14, 2015
The Lex-Ham Community Theater, in partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society, will present a dramatic staged reading of Tom Taylor's Our American Cousin at 6:30 p.m., tonight, April 14, 2015 in the auditorium of the Minnesota History Center, 345 W. Kellogg Blvd. St. Paul The performance is directed by John Townsend. The event is free and open to the public.
The performance is on the 150th anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln and his wife were watching Our American Cousin at the Ford Theatre in Washington, D.C. at the time of the shooting. The reading is part of a series of events commemorating Minnesota's role in the Civil War. Our American Cousin was the comedy hit of the late 1850s/early 1860s in England and in America. The play centers on Asa Trenchard, a rustic American, who comes to England to claim an inheritance. Sir Edward Trenchard and his clever daughter, Florence, are about to lose their estate to Trenchard's business agent, Mr. Coyle. The Trenchard estate is populated by servants and a motley assortment of people, including Lord Dundreary, whose assault on the English language led to popular fad of the time of inventing words. When Asa becomes attracted to Mary Meredith, the poor cousin of the Trenchards, the plot thickens quickly.Videos
