Lanford Wilson's BURN THIS Plays Murfreesboro's Out Front on Main, Closes 5/1

The theatrical legacy of playwright Lanford Wilson will be commemorated at Murfreesboro's Out Front on Main theater with the company's production of Burn This, closing May 1.

Set in a chic loft on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Burn This shows the tension that erupts when people from very different worlds collide. The play is described as a "penetrating exposition of four violently opposing characters who are scrambling to regain control over their lives."

George W. Manus Jr., the founder of Out Front on Main, directs a cast that includes Megan Blevins as Anna, Justin Hand as Pale, Buddy Jones as Larry and Ryan Daniel as Burton.

Wilson, who died March 24, is considered one of the founders of the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Reviewing Burn This for The New York Times, critic Mel Gussow wrote: "From his earliest plays to his latest, Burn This, Lanford Wilson has been firmly committed to the free expression of the individual spirit, no matter how nonconformist or even prodigal that spirit may seem to be...In the sense that it deals with lonely and displaced characters, Burn This is in the Wilson tradition. Where it breaks dramatic ground for the author is in its passion...Mr. Wilson exposes deep uncauterized emotional wounds-and offers no salve. His unlikely romantic couple come together at the end of the play, but it would be precipitous to think of it as a happy ending. The affair is a daring - and even questionable - step for the characters, Anna, a dancer-choreographer, and Pale, a wild man and certifiable outsider."

In his review for Newsweek, Jack Kroll wrote: "Burn This is neither a straight play nor a gay one (or perhaps it's the first play that's truly both straight and gay), a comedy that laughs at its own tragic roots, a love story in which the lovers are scared to death of one another, a play about art in which the strongest sensibility belongs to a character who looks upon artists as frauds...The play has a voracious vitality and an almost manic determination to drive right into the highest voltage that life can register."

Out Front on Main, Inc. is located at 1511 E. Main Street, in Murfreesboro. For more information, call (615) 713-1757 or visit the company website at www.outfrontonmain.com.

 

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