FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 4, 2004

UNL's University Theatre presents Dark Comedy THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES

(Lincoln, Nebraska) -- UNL Theatre's University Theatre completes its fall semester season with John Guare's dark comedy THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES. Guest artist Gil Lazier directs the production, which has a sneak preview Wednesday, November 17 at 7:30 PM. Regular performances are November 18, 19, 20 and December 1, 2, 3, 4 at 7:30 PM. The split schedule is due to UNL's Thanksgiving break. All performances are in Howell Theatre, first floor Temple Building at 12th and R Streets. Tickets are available at the Lied Center Ticket Office, 301 N. 12th Street, Monday through Friday 11:00 AM to 5:30 PM and one hour prior to performance in Howell Theatre lobby. The Ticket Office may be reached at 472-4747 or 800-432-3231. Tickets for the sneak preview are $5.00 and may only be purchased at the door. Regular performance tickets are $14.00 regular, $12.00 faculty/staff and senior citizen, $10.00 student.

THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES is set on October 4, 1965, the day the Pope first visited New York City. Zookeeper Artie Shaughnessy (played by undergraduate theatre major Jeff Nathan) is on a quest to revive his stalled show business career. A darkly comic look at the underside of the American dream, THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES is complete with Artie's delusional wife Bananas Shaughnessy (played by undergraduate theatre major Caitlin Brandes) and his mistress Bunny Flingus who talks a mile a minute (played by undergraduate theatre major Brittany Leffler). A look at how people expect miracles from fame and celebrity, Artie's son Ronnie (played by undergraduate theatre major Brett D. Waldon) can't get famous by being in a movie, so he seeks fame as a mass murderer.

Gil Lazier stated, "I am happy to be in Lincoln to direct THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES. The theatre program at UNL has a great reputation and the show is an award-winning American classic. John Guare's play is a very funny, very dark comedy about American life. We're having a wonderful time working on the production, and are eager to share it with our audiences."

Lazier describes the play as "Šnot directly about politics or religion, its themes touch on these dimensions of our lives as Americans. Guare's America of 1965 was a nation at war, as we are today. We tend to look to our current religious leaders for solace and inspiration, as do Guare's characters. But The House of Blue Leaves deals with even more basic human issues, our sometimes desperate need to succeed, our assumptions that things are always better somewhere else, our compulsions to validate who we are by what others think of us, our aspirations for our '15 minutes of fame.'"

Dr. Gil Lazier is Dean Emeritus of the Florida State University School of Theatre, where he served as Dean from 1982 to 1999. For the past three years he was Director of the FSU/Asolo MFA Conservatory for Actor Training in Sarasota. Under his leadership, the FSU School of Theatre achieved international prominence as an academic program of the highest excellence, consistently in top-ten listings by such publications as US News & World Report.

As a theatre artist, Dr. Lazier has directed many dozens of productions in the U. S. and abroad including musicals, new works and classics by such masters as Albee, Brecht, Chekhov, Coward, Ibsen, O'Neill, Pinter, Shakespeare, Sophocles, Stoppard and Williams. In Moscow, his production of Neil Simon's "I Ought To Be In Pictures" played for over ten years in Russian. He is a specialist in theories of acting, especially those of Stanislavski. He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Dean Gil Lazier was awarded the two highest honors in his discipline, election for life to the College of Fellows of the American Theatre, comparable in theatre to the National Academy of Science; and the National Theatre Conference, limited to 100 acknowledged leaders in theatre in America.

Other cast members include Cecilia Stinner as Corrinna Stroller, Carrie Brown as the Head Nun, Naomi Mitarai as the Second Nun, Jenny Cary as the Little Nun, Seth Petersen as the M.P. Jeff Tinnean as The White Man and well-known community actor Richard Nielsen as Hollywood director Billy Einhorn.

The tech/design team is made up of graduate students Jeff Weber (scenery) and Mike Legate (sound), undergraduate students Jaime Borchert (costumes), Alicia Bailey (technical director) and Jennifer Dierking (stage manager). Faculty member Heath Lane designs lights.

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