Tampa Rep to Continue 'Conversation Starters' Series with THE WOMEN OF LOCKERBIE

Conversation Starters, Tampa Repertory Theatre and Creative Loafing's series of staged readings of new plays, continues with The Women of Lockerbie, a moving poetic drama about the triumph of love over hate, by Deborah Brevoort.

The reading will take place on March 13th at 7:30pm in the Creative Loafing Space, 1911 N. 13th Street, Tampa, Florida 33605. There will be a discussion with the cast and director after the reading. Patrons can purchase tickets at TampaRep.org/Women or at the door on the night of the performance, starting at 6:30pm.

Inspired by a true story, The Women of Lockerbie finds a mother from New Jersey roaming the hills of Lockerbie, Scotland, looking for her son's remains, lost in the crash of Pan Am 103. She meets the women of Lockerbie, who are fighting the US Government to obtain the clothing of the victims found in the plane's wreckage. Determined to convert an act of hatred into an act of love, the women want to wash the clothes of the dead and return them to the victim's families. Drawing on the structure of Greek tragedy, Breveroot has created a poetic drama about the triumph of love over hate.

Dominic Cavendish, writing in London's Daily Telegraph, noted that the play ". . . catches the grim mood [of a terrorist attack] better than anything I've yet seen on the subject of 9/11 and its aftermath. In its tightly controlled depiction of collective sorrow...it becomes almost unbearably moving." Other critics have echoed Cavendish, calling Brevoort's work "A moving, thoughtful exploration of how grief changes over time." (The New Yorker) and "A stunning display of raw emotion, a powerhouse drama, a masterful and cathartic experience" (Variety).

Deborah Brevoort is a playwright and librettist from Alaska who now lives in the New York City area. She is an alumna of New Dramatists, one of the original company members of Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska and a co-founder of Theatre Without Borders, a group of individual artists dedicated to international theatre exchange. A prolific playwright, has won numerous awards including the Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays Award and the silver medal in the Onassis International Playwriting Competition for The Women of Lockerbie.

For The Women of Lockerbie, director Dan Granke has assembled a fine ensemble of actors including Jim Wicker, Caroline Jett, Emily Belvo, Eddie Gomez, and Bridget Bean.

More information about TampaRep is available at TampaRep.org.