Southeastern Theatre to present Encore, Encore
Friday, March 4, 2016
by: Tonya Lowentritt
HAMMOND- Southeastern Louisiana University’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts
will present “Encore, Encore,” a play about the life of American poet and writer Dorothy
Parker. Scheduled March 8 – 11 at 7:30 p.m. each evening, the production will take
place in Southeastern’s Vonnie Borden Theatre.
The production recreates the life of Parker, a short story writer, critic, and
satirist, as written by playwright Colin Crowley. This marks the first production
of the play, winner of the 2015 Inkslinger competition. Due to mature content and
language, there is an advisory for the play.
“Southeastern Theater has done an excellent job in recent years bringing new
plays to the stage,” said Director Jeff Polito. “We are so excited to keep that tradition
going with ‘Encore, Encore.’ As a Southeastern alumnus, I have enjoyed being back
on my home stage directing such a talented group of actors and working with such a
professional production team.”
In the play, the audience first meets Parker as she begins her journey to literary
fame. A lowly caption writer for “Vogue Magazine,” she manages to amuse her way to
a job as drama critic for “Vanity Fair,” where she quickly becomes established as
a famous wit of the age.
Back home she is not a critic or a wit, but the wife of a man addicted to alcohol
and morphine as a result of his service in World War I.
“The man in question, Eddie Parker, wasn’t always a shadow of a man, but that’s
what he becomes, and Dorothy resultantly learns the hard lesson that a shadow is difficult
to embrace… always and forever slipping out of your fingers,” said Crowley.
“As Dorothy’s career surges, her personal life collapses,” he added, “her husband
becomes mired in hopelessness, but who is there to know? Dorothy is always playing
the part of the critic – a steel woman dealing in laughs, not tears, and made of barbs,
not emotions – a constant actor on a stage, maintaining a smile through encore after
encore, even when her heart is breaking, her husband is dying, and her life is collapsing.”
Southeastern students cast in the production include: Angela Griffitt of Mandeville
as Dorothy Parker; William Hyde of Loranger as Frank Crowninshield; Taylor Sinclair
of LaPlace as Robert Benchley; Matthew Dale Carona of Independence as Eddie Pond Parker
III; Bennett Cockerham of Hammond as Actor; Shelly Sneed of Minden as Actress; Neal
Eli of Luling as Robert Sherwood; and Duncan Martin of French Settlement as Charles
Macarthur.
Madison Paulus of Springfield will serve as stage manager, and Kelsey Hymel of
Biloxi will handle sound.
General admission tickets are $10; $5 for seniors and non-Southeastern students;
and free for Southeastern students with University ID. Tickets are available 30 minutes
prior to show time in the Vonnie Borden Theatre Box Office, located in the main lobby
of D Vickers Hall.
For more information, contact the Department of Fine and Performing Arts, 985-549-2184.
