Southern Rep To Present the World Premiere of Three One-Act Plays by Williams, 3/23

Southern Rep is thrilled to announce an addition to our 2010-2011 Season, Three World Premiere One Acts by Tennessee Williams. The plays are THE PRETTY TRAP, THE MAGIC TOWER, and EVERY TWENTY MINUTES. This production may represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for New Orleans audiences to see World Premieres written by one of the greatest American Playwrights. Our preview performance on March 23 will also serve as the opening celebration for the 25th Annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, which this year celebrates the 100th anniversary of the playwright's birth.

THE PRETTY TRAP: A COMEDY IN ONE ACT follows the Wingfield family and sheds unique light on the seminal full-length play it grew into, THE GLASS MENAGERIE. THE MAGIC TOWER depicts a bohemian artist couple's struggles to live their dreams, while EVERY TWENTY MINUTES is a satire of modern life.

One of the most fascinating aspects of creating a play is seeing how a playwright gets from point A to point B. Where does an idea begin and how does it end up. In these plays we see these strangely familiar characters saying words that feel vaguely like something we've heard before. You realize oh, that is the first echo of Blanche, there is Amanda, that must be Alexandra del Lago--all of these great Williams characters begin in these small intense sketches. Watching these plays will be a feast for Tennessee fans. Amidst the laughter and drama you will get to play detective! Also, you just can't beat Tennessee trying out GLASS MENAGERIE as a comic sketch--he makes it work! New Orleanians should not miss this one!
- Aimée Hayes, Artistic Director

The plays will also be featured in an upcoming publication, The Magic Tower and Other One Act Plays, with a foreword by Terrence McNally. This new volume gathers some of Williams's most exciting early work and includes one-acts, like THE PRETTY TRAP, that Williams would later expand to powerful full-length dramas. INTERIOR PANIC, included in the collection, is a precursor to A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. Copies of the publication will be available for sale in the Southern Rep lobby.

The cast boasts a long list of New Orleans and Southern Rep favorites, including Lucy Faust (seen last fall in SRT's production of AFTERLIFE); Sean Glazebrook (seen last summer in Southern Rep @ Le Chat Noir's THE FOUR OF US, and in SRT's 2009/2010 Season in WITH A BANG); Lara Grice (featured recently in SRT's Fringe offering INCENDIARY); Alex Lemonier (seen in last season's WITH A BANG); Cecile Monteyne (who recently returned to New Orleans after some time away in London, and was recently seen onstage in SRT's New Play Bacchanal); plus Sarah Faust and Chris Marroy, who are making their Southern Rep debuts!

The First Preview is on March 23rd and serves as a benefit for the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. See www.tennesseewilliams.net for details. Additional performances run March 24th - April 3rd. Wednesday-Saturday performances are at 8 p.m.; Sunday, March 27th is at 7pm, and Sunday, April 3rd is at 3:00 p.m. (There is no performance on Friday, March 25th.) All tickets are just $25!
For more information, or to reserve your tickets, please call 504-522-6545 or go online to www.SouthernRep.com.

Southern Rep enters its 24th season as the region's premiere professional theatre, continuing to produce bold world and regional premieres under the artistic leadership of Aimée Hayes, with Managing Director Marieke Gaboury, and Associate Artistic Director Mark Routhier. In addition to an exciting Mainstage season that takes us on a journey from the dining room table to a 19th Century doctor's examining table to a magical realm inhabited by mythical creatures Southern Rep at Le Chat Noir offers a Second Stage season of eclectic, smart, silly and audacious theatrical fare. Southern Rep continues to offer educational programs such as free student matinees, $10 student rush tickets, and YO NOLA; as well as providing an artistic home to new works in development in the annual New Play Bacchanal.

Southern Rep continues to show that it is staging the most important, challenging, and downright mesmerizing pieces of theater New Orleans audiences are graced to experience. - Theodore P. Mahne, The Times-Picayune Lagniappe

 

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