Looking for Lilith Theatre to Present ALICE IN BLACK AND WHITE World Premiere, 2/28-3/9

Celebrate Women's History Month with a World Premiere Play, Alice in Black and White, presented by Looking for Lilith Theatre Company.

The production will play the MeX Theater (Kentucky Center), February 28 - March 2 @ 7:30 p.m.; March 7, 8, 9 @ 7:30 p.m.; and March 9 @ 2:00 p.m. Cost: $18 (adults); $15 .(seniors and students). Tickets: (502) 584-7777 or online @ www.kentuckycenter.org.

Alice Austen fell in love with photography and another woman at a time when women were expected to do neither. Marking LFL's annual Women's History Month production is a world premiere, Alice in Black and White, by award-winning published New York-based playwright Robin Rice Lichtig. Ms. Lichtig has been fascinated by the photographic work and life of Alice Austen for several years and, in this humorous and heartbreaking exploration of Alice, she creates a period-hopping story that embraces both love and mystery. "I've seen Lilith's work in both Louisville and New York City, and am so excited to have the world premiere of Alice in their hands", she says. This stunning play won the StageWrite Women's Theatre Initiative Award. LFL will present this production at the Mex Theater at the Kentucky Center for the Arts, February 28 - March 9; with the second week's performances occurring during the Southeastern Theatre Conference's annual convention in Louisville. Ms. Lichtig will be in Louisville for the world premiere and will participate in scheduled talkbacks with the audience.

Alice Austen (1866-1952) was born into a world that was just discovering photography and she discovered photography at the age of ten, taking thousands of photos during her lifetime. Ms. Lichtig's play juxtaposes Alice's love of photography and her relationship with dance teacher Gertrude Tate with the 20th century re-discovery of her work by publisher Oliver Jensen as he prepares his book American Women in Revolt, intermingling characters from different time periods. The play captures the highs and lows of Alice's life and love as her well-to-do Staten Island family is ruined by the Depression, she and Gertrude are unable to maintain her childhood home, and her family refuses to help the couple in their old age. Paralleling the powerful true story, we also see Oliver's quest to find Alice's long-lost negatives, and Alice herself, in the last year of her life, introducing Alice's remarkable images of Staten Island socialites, immigrant workers, and vistas and people throughout the world to a new generation of admirers. The poingnant lost story of Alice's photographs and lesbian relationship with Gertrude is inspiring and heartbreaking, one that still has resonance for today's women, straight and gay, and one that fully embodies the mission of Looking for Lilith.

LFL company members and associates who perform in Alice in Black and White are Shannon Woolley Allison, Laura Ellis, Trina Fischer, Jennifer Thalman Kepler and Dawn Schulz. Joe Hatfield and Ted Lesley join the LFL acting team, marking another first for Looking for Lilith as they are the first male actors to perform in a main-stage LFL production. Designers creating the world of Alice Austen and Oliver Jensen include long term LFL collaborators scenic designer Christé Lunsford, costume designer Lindsay Chamberlin, and sound designer Nathan Roberts. Also returning are Lauren Camargo as stage manager and Karissa Singleton as props manager.

SOURCE: Louisville Culture Vulture

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