Steve LaRocque Stars in One-Man Show BYLINE: ERNIE PYLE 4/25

Steve LaRocque follows his critically-acclaimed appearance in "A Walk in the Woods" at Quotidian Theatre Company with three free performances of his one-man WWII play, Byline: Ernie Pyle on April 25. LaRocque plays war correspondent Ernie Pyle, recounting the major events of World War II in Pyle's own words. The actor becomes the reporter, appalled at the tragic waste of war and the brutal conditions it imposes on the men who fight it, and personally committed to going back to it, again and again, until the end.

Performances are free and open to all. Dates and times: Thursday, 25 April 2013 at 1:00pm at Congregation Har Tzeon, 1840 University Boulevard West, Silver Spring, MD 20902; Wednesday, 1 May 2013 at 1:00pm at Young Israel Shomrai Emunah, 1132 Arcola Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20902; and Saturday, 18 May 2013 at 7:30pm at the Takoma Park City Auditorium, 7500 Maple Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912.

Ernie Pyle was one of the first "embedded" reporters. As a correspondent during World War II for the Scripps-Howard newspapers, Pyle went to war with sailors and aviators, anti-aircraft gunners and mule packers, medical teams and combat engineers, and, above all, his beloved infantry, "the underdogs... without whom wars cannot be won." Pyle covered the London Blitz, the North African campaign, the invasion of Sicily and bitter mountain fighting in Italy, the Normandy invasion, and the glorious liberation of Paris. His now-famous dispatches chronicled the day-to-day stories of everyday American citizens who became warriors at a time of urgent need, and their triumphs and sacrifices that ultimately won the war.

Steve LaRocque has been active in the greater Washington, DC area since 1994 as a performer, director, and playwright. He is a charter member of the Quotidian Theatre Company and has appeared in over twenty Quotidian productions; favorite roles include Willis Toome in Horton Foote's "Talking Pictures", Alfred P. Doolittle in Shaw's "Pygmalion", and Lopakhin in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard". LaRocque has also been writing performance pieces of all kinds, from comedy sketches to full-length lays, since 1976, while simultaneously pursuing a 29-year career as a Navy officer, from which he retired in 2005. (He suspects that may be the only playwright to have had a script produced on board a Navy submarine on patrol). Three of his recent scripts have seen productions, all by Quotidian: "September 11th was a Tuesday" (2003), "While We Have the Light" (2005), and "Monday Evening 1942" (2009).

Visit www.quotidiantheatre.org for more information.

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