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Playwright Tina Howe, whose comedy Museum will be presented by College Theater April 18-21, will be on campus Monday, April 9, and Tuesday, April 10, for a public lecture and question and answer session.
Museum, which runs at 8 p.m. each night in the Williams Center for the Arts Black Box Theater, features a 38-member cast of Lafayette students, alumni, local artists, and Lehigh Valley residents. Combining vaudeville sketches with cinema verite style, the play chronicles in real time the interaction of museum patrons with art and with one another as events on the closing day of a controversial exhibition descend into chaos. The production is directed by Michael O’Neill, associate professor of English and director of theater.
Tickets are $2 for students and $3 for faculty and staff. They can be obtained by calling the Williams Center Box Office at 610-330-5009. Museum contains adult language.
Howe, who is the 2006-07 Closs Visiting Writer in Residence at Lafayette, will talk about her plays and the American theater 8 p.m. April 9 in the Williams Center. She will also join cast members of the production for an informal question and answer session 12:15 p.m. April 10 in the Williams Center Black Box Theater. Lunch will be provided.
In addition to Museum, Howe’s plays include Painting Churches, The Art of Dining, and Coastal Disturbances, which was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Play in 1987. Pride’s Crossing, which was selected as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1997, received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play in 1998.
During her residency at Lafayette, Howe will visit writing classes, attend rehearsals of Museum, and meet individually with theater and writing students. The residency is made possible by the Ruth Mary Callahan Closs Fund, the English department, and College Theater.
A recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship, Howe has been recognized for her achievements both off-Broadway and on Broadway by an Obie Award for Distinguished Playwriting, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature.
Richard A. Kendrick, technical director for the Williams Center, has designed a gallery space for Museum in the Black Box Theater. Economics and business major Lindsay Gonzalez ’09 (Towanda, Pa.) has created the onstage artwork for the production. Costumes are by D. Polly Kendrick, of Parrott Designs, sound design by Timothy Frey, sound engineer for the Williams Center, and the production stage manager is psychology major Kelly Hess ’08 (Prospect Park, N.J.).