In celebration of 40 years of undergraduate women at Lehigh, the Department of Theatre is pleased to present a season of plays by and about women. The 2011-2012 season consists of:
Diamond Theater
DUSTY AND THE BIG BAD WORLD by Cusi Cram
directed by Pam Pepper
Sept 30-Oct 2 & October 5-7, 2011 (Note: no Saturday closing)
The Christian right swoops down on a TV show that has afforded an 11-year-old girl the opportunity to appear on the program with her brother and two gay dads. Based on an actual incident, Dusty and the Big Bad World is a funny, no-holds-barred look at PBS, government bias, gay marriage, the right to privacy, children’s allergies and the ability to survive in a small-minded world. Cusi Cram is a member of LAByrinth Theater Company and a founding member of The Fulcrum Theater. The winner of many fellowships and grants, Cram’s works have been produced across the country. She has received three Emmy award nominations for her writing on the animated children’s program “Arthur.”
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TOP GIRLS by Caryl Churchill
directed by Augustine Ripa
November 4-6 and 9-12, 2011
Set in the early Thatcher years, Top Girls is a seminal play of the modern theatre, revealing a world of women's experience at a pivotal moment in recent history. Told by an eclectic group of historical and modern characters in a continuous conversation across ages and generations, Top Girls was hailed by The Guardian as "the best British play ever by a woman dramatist." "A dramatist who must surely be rated among the half-dozen best now writing - a playwright of genuine audacity and assurance, able to use her considerable wit and intelligence in ways at once unusual, resonant and dramatically riveting."—New Statesman
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THE LITTLE FOXES by Lillian Hellman
directed by Kashi Johnson
February 17-19 and 22-25, 2012
A masterfully constructed tale of backstabbing family politics, treachery and greed that is as relevant today as it was when the play was first staged in 1939. Aristocratic and corrupt cotton plantation owners, the Hubbards, seemingly will do anything for money. Among her many awards, Lillian Hellman received two New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, a Gold Medal from the Academy of Arts and Letters for Distinguished Achievement in the Theater, and a National Book Award. Her plays were described as “landmarks in the history of New York theater, if perhaps not the history of drama.” – New York Times
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THE BELLE’S STRATAGEM by Hannah Cowley
directed by Christopher M. Bohan '94
April 13-15 and 18-21, 2012
Letitia Hardy schemes to win the heart of her betrothed, Doricourt, while he conspires to have the engagement annulled. Lady Frances Touchwood is introduced to fashionable London society, to the great consternation of her jealous husband, Sir George. This enchanting 18th century comedy of manners playfully looks at marriage and the roles men and women play. “The Belle’s Stratagem is the best dramatic production of a female pen…” The Critical Review, 1782.
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Black Box Theater
#1 December 9-11 - THE LISTENER, directed by Andrew William Chupa '13
#2 March 23-25 - KNOWING CAIRO, directed by Brittany Johnson '13
#3 April 27-29 - MOONY DA-FE AND THE PRETTY PETUNIA PANIC: Five One-Act Plays by Tennessee Williams, directed by Theatre 144 students
