Westport Offers Mary's Wedding Symposium on WWI, 6/24

Westport Country Playhouse will present a Sunday Symposium on "Insight into the War to End All Wars--- WWI," following the June 24, 3 p.m. matinee performance of Mary's Wedding, an award-winning play of young love, set in Canada immediately before, during and after World War I.

Guest speakers will be Stephen Massicotte, playwright of Mary's Wedding, and Cecelia Bucki, associate professor of history at Fairfield University.  The Playhouse Sunday Symposium program, free and open to the public, provides the audience with guest speakers' in-depth insights and observations about the production followed by an interactive dialogue.  Debra Baron, Westport Country Playhouse education director, will moderate the Sunday Symposium.

The speakers will offer an historical perspective of World War I and some of its unintended social consequences and long-term effects on the 20th century.

"The Sunday Symposium will enhance the audience's experience in fully appreciating the play," said Tazewell Thompson, Westport Country Playhouse artistic director. "It is open to all, including those who attend a performance of Mary's Wedding at another time." Thompson is director of Mary's Wedding, on the stage of Westport Country Playhouse June 21 through July 7. 

Massicotte's play Mary's Wedding premiered at Alberta Theatre Projects' annual playRites Festival and was the winner of the 2000 Alberta Playwriting Competition, the 2002 Betty Mitchell Award for Best New Play and the 2003 Alberta Book Award for Drama. Mary's Wedding continues to be produced in English and French throughout Canada, the UK and the US.  Massicotte's other award-winning plays The Oxford Roof Climber's Rebellion, A Farewell to Kings, Pervert and the popular Star Wars-inspired Boy's Own Jedi Handbook series have played for audiences throughout Canada.  His film writing credits include the screenplays for the feature films "Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning and "The Dark."  Massicotte has a BFA in Drama from the University of Calgary. 

Bucki has taught at Fairfield University since 1990. She has also taught at Wesleyan University, Yale University, and Hamilton College. She is a specialist in twentieth-century U.S. history, with an emphasis on social and labor history. Her first book, Bridgeport's Socialist New Deal, 1915-1936 (2001), won the Homer D. Babbidge, Jr. Award for Best Book in Connecticut History from the Association for the Study of Connecticut History.

For more information on Massicotte, visit www.stephenmassicotte.com.  Visit www.westportplayhouse.org for more information on the Westport Country Playhouse.

Mary's Wedding poster illustration by Elizabeth Wolf