Press Releases

July 1, 2002
Writers Conference Presents Reading of John Guare's "Lydie Breeze"

Staged Performance to Feature Actors Kathleen Turner, Roy Scheider and Alan Alda

Contact:
Patricia Conway (PR@southampton.liu.edu)
(631) 287 8313
Fax: (631) 283 4081

A staged reading of playwright John Guare's "Lydie Breeze" featuring actors Kathleen Turner, Alan Alda, and Roy Scheider, will be performed at the Southampton College's Avram Theater on Monday, July 22 at 8:00 p.m.

Guare, a major influence in modern American theater, is best known for his plays "The House of Blue Leaves" and "Six Degrees of Separation." "The House of Blue Leaves," which won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as Best American Play of 1971, received four Tony Awards in its triumphant 1986 revival at Lincoln Center. "Six Degrees of Separation," a 1990 New York Drama Critics Circle Award winner, was made into a film starring Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland, and Will Smith. Guare also wrote the screenplay for Louis Malle's "Atlantic City," starring Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon, which earned a 1981 Oscar nomination.

"Lydie Breeze" takes place in the 19th century when America was giving birth to that myth called the American Dream: the war had ended, the nation was whole again, and the veterans who survived the nightmare assumed life had to be better. Guare's writing in the play focuses on the tools human beings possess to make their dreams come true.

A discussion with the playwright and actors will follow the performance. Tickets to the staged reading are $45 and can be purchased by calling (631)287-8477.

The Writers Conference, part of Southampton College' Program in Writing, is designed to offer inspiration and guidance to new writers, established authors, editors, and teachers of writing in all genres, as well as anyone seeking instruction that is friendly, rigorous, professionally useful, and intellectually challenging. The program's regular faculty include essayist Roger Rosenblatt, novelists Indira Ganesan and Robert Reeves, and distinguished authors including Shana Alexander, Spalding Gray, Jules Feiffer, Kaylie Jones, Matt Klam, Avery Corman, Billy Collins, and Peter Matthiessen.

For further information on the Summer Writers Conference, call (631)287-8175 or visit the website at www.southampton.liu.edu/summer. BLOCKQUOTE>

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