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West Virginia University at
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NEWS West Virginia University at Parkersburg
300 Campus Drive Parkersburg WV 26104
Phone: 304-424-8203 | Fax: 304-424-8315
Oct. 12, 2009
WVU Parkersburg Theatre Department to stage "Dancing at Lughnasa" Oct. 16-18, 2009.
CONTACT: Jeffrey Byrd, instructor of theatre, 304-424-8295.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThe West Virginia University at Parkersburg Theatre Department will stage "Dancing at Lughnasa" Friday-Sunday (Oct. 16-18).
Curtain time is 8 .m., Friday and Saturday (Oct. 16-18) and 2 p.m., Sunday (Oct. 18). The production is free and open to the public. It will be held in the college's theatre (Room 1305).
By dramatist Brian Friel, "Dancing at Lughnasa" is a memory play as told from the view point of an adult Michael Evans. The play is set in the fictional town of Ballybeg, county Donegal, Ireland, in the summer of 1936.
The play is a recounting of a summer he lived with his aunts when he was seven years old. It depicts the late summer days when love briefly seems possible for three of the Mundy sisters and the family welcomes home its frail elder brother, who has returned from a life as a missionary in Africa. However, as the summer ends, the family foresees the sadness and economic privations under which they will suffer as all hopes fade.
The opening of a knitwear factory in the village has just killed off the hand knitted glove cottage industry which has been the livelihood of sisters Agnes and Rose. The village priest has told sister Kate that there are insufficient pupils at the school for her to continue in her post in the coming school year. She suspects that the real reason is her brother Jack, whose heretical views has become known to the church and has tainted her by association. There is a sense that the close home life the women/girls have known since childhood is about to be torn apart. The narrator, the adult Michael, tells that this is indeed what happens.
"Dancing at Lughnasa" is under the direction of theatre instructor Jeffrey Byrd with choreography by adjunct instructor Joy Held.
The play kicks off a season of international plays and coffee house readings for the 2009-20010 academic year.
cd10/13/09
For additional information, contact:
Connie Dziagwa
WVU Parkersburg
Executive Director
Institutional Advancement
(304-424-8203, Office)
(304-424-8315, Fax)
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