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SHOWTIMERS

Community Theatre Since 1951

Season Opener to Honor Black History Month

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Ernest J. Gaines’s Award-Winning Novel Brought to Life on Showtimers’ Stage

 Showtimers Community Theatre will open its 2013 season this February 13^th with Romulus Linney’s stage adaptation of Ernest J. Gaines’s award-winning novel, A Lesson Before Dying. Mr. Linney’s drama, set in rural Louisiana in 1948, is meticulously faithful to Ernest Gaines’s story about a poor plantation worker who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, resulting in his being convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the electric chair.

Mr. Gaines’s novel should be familiar to local audiences as the book was selected by “The Big Read Roanoke Valley” in 2009 and became the centerpiece for discussions and cultural presentations for over six months.  The stage play, A Lesson Before Dying, developed at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival while Linney was playwright in residence there, was the result of a longstanding friendship between playwright, Romulus Linney and author, Ernest J. Gaines

The drama is presented by a cast of seven; five African-American actors and two Caucasian actors.  Much of the dialogue is taken directly from the novel and invites the audience into a tangible experience of black history at a time when “Jim Crow” laws enforced strict segregation.

A Lesson Before Dying will be performed at Showtimers’ McVitty Road theatre at 8:00 PM Wednesday through Saturday nights, February 13^th through 16^th and 20^th through 23^rd and at 2:00 PM on Sundays, February 17^th and 24^th.

Tickets are $12.00 for adults and $5.00 for those under 18.  Groups, especially educational ones, are encouraged to contact Showtimers’ Box Office (540-774-2660) for information about group rates.  Presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service.