LILLIAN, PAULA, CARSON to be Presented at Morningside Theatre Co.

An encore reading of John Barrow's award-winning play "Lillian, Paula, Carson" will be presented at the Morningside Theatre Co. (100 La Salle Street, Manhattan) on Saturday, March 1, from 4:00-5:30pm. No reservations necessary; admission FREE.

Lillian Smith, a lesbian novelist and civil rights advocate from Georgia, scandalized readers with her novel Strange Fruit (1944), about a white man in love with a black woman. No stranger to unpopular statements, Smith and her partner Paula Snelling publicly opposed segregation and Jim Crow laws. For nearly 30 years, Smith and Snelling operated a progressive camp for girls in the Georgia mountains. In 1953 the famous novelist Carson McCullers (Member of the Wedding; The Heart is a Lonely Hunter) made a surprise visit to the two women. Based on that visit, the work addresses issues of the artist's role in activism, segregation, race, and living as a lesbian couple in Georgia.

Cast includes Susan Galardi as Lillian Smith; Cecelia Martin as Paula Snelling; Melanie Gertzman as Carson McCullers. Susan Strickler directs; stage directions Jan Thompson. The entire team, other than Ms. Gertzman, are members of the Stonewall Chorale, the nation's first gay choral society.