JUBILEE THEATRE PRESENTS ROMULUS LINNEY’S A LESSON BEFORE DYING
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jackie Elliott
817-338-4204 ext. 2
JUBILEE THEATRE PRESENTS ROMULUS LINNEY’S A LESSON BEFORE DYING
FORT WORTH, TX - Jubilee Theatre continues its 2007-2008 season with Romulus Linney’s A Lesson Before Dying. This play was adapted from the novel by Ernest J. Gaines. The novel won the 1993 National Book Critics Award; it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; and Oprah Winfrey chose it to be part of her Oprah’s Book Club in 1997. Adapted for the stage in 1999, A Lesson Before Dying was originally developed through the Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s Southern Writers’ Project, which fosters plays that deal with Southern issues and the African-American experience.
A Lesson Before Dying centers on a young African-American man wrongly sentenced to death in a deeply prejudiced 1940s. Through a reluctant school teacher, he is taught how to live and die with grace and dignity. A Lesson Before Dying is about the ways in which people insist on declaring the value of their lives, and it addresses the basic predicament of what it is to be a human being striving for dignity in a world that often denies it.
The death penalty has proven to be a very timely subject in North Texas. Since 2001, 12 Dallas County men have been proven innocent through DNA testing - a pattern that, according to the Innocence Project, is both unprecedented and troubling.
Directed by Ed Smith, this production features Bob Allen, Kim Bingham, David Ellis, Mandel Hill, Marcus M. Mauldin, Christopher Piper, and Vickie Washington. Designers include set design by Michael Skinner, lighting design by Roma Flowers, sound design by RaByn Taylor, and wardrobe by Barbara O’Donoghue.
A Lesson Before Dying previews January 25, 26, 27, and 31; the show opens February 1; and the show runs February 2 through February 24, 2008. Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. Post performance talkbacks with the artists will be held January 27 and February 7. Preview performance tickets are $10; tickets range from $14 to $20 for the run of the production. Tickets can be purchased from the Jubilee Theatre Box Office by calling 817-338-4411 Tuesday through Friday between noon and 6 p.m. or online by visiting the Jubilee website: jubileetheatre.org.
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