DRIVING MISS DAISY Plays the Ivoryton Playhouse, 9/29-10/17

On September 29th, The Ivoryton Playhouse opens the sixth production of the 2010 season - Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize winning drama Driving Miss Daisy. From its landmark Off-Broadway production in 1987 to the remarkable success of the Oscar-winning film version (4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture), Driving Miss Daisy has become one of the most beloved American stories of the late twentieth century.

Mr. Uhry's classic play is a timeless, searing, funny, and ultimately hopeful meditation on race relations in America, told through the complex relationship between two of popular culture's most enduring characters. When Daisy Werthan, a widowed, 72-year-old Jewish woman living in midcentury Atlanta, is deemed too old to drive, her son hires Hoke Colburn, an African American man, to serve as her chauffeur. What begins as a troubled and hostile pairing, soon blossoms into a profound, life-altering friendship that transcends all the boundaries that society placed between them.

Larry Thelen directs this production with Rebecca Hoodwin* as the indomitable Daisy Werthan and Rob Barnes* as Hoke. Ms. Hoodwin and Mr. Barnes both have extensive stage careers - Mr. Barnes was in the original Broadway casts of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, and Ms. Hoodwin was Golde opposite Theodore Bikel in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway. Steve Barron* will play Daisy's son, Boolie. Set design by Bill Stark, lighting by Jo Nazro, and costumes by Pam Puente complete the production.

Driving Miss Daisy opens on September 29th and runs thru October 17th for 3 weeks. Performance times are Wednesday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. Evening performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm. Tickets are $38 for adults, $33 for seniors, $20 for students and $15 for children and are available by calling the Playhouse box office at 860-767-7318 or by visiting our website at www.ivorytonplayhouse.org. (Group rates are available by calling the box office for information.) The Playhouse is located at 103 Main Street in Ivoryton.

Photo Credit: Anne Hudson

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