Phoenix Theatre Ensemble Hosts A LOVELY SUNDAY Presentations, 11/17 - 11/22

Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, an artist-directed theatre company now in its 6th Season, has announced staged reading performances of Tennessee Williams' rarely performed A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (Crève Cœur is derived from French for "broken heart"), on Tuesday, November 17 at 7:30 and Saturday, November 21 at 1:00 pm and Sunday, November 22 at 3:00 pm. The performances will be at The Wild Project at 195 East 3rd Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

This 90-minute poignant comedy set in St. Louis in the mid-1930s, concerns four breathless middle-aged women struggling for a sense of identity and independence. Dorothea, a Blanche DuBouis-like civics high school teacher, fantasizes the school principal will soon rescue her from spinsterhood and her mundane life after allowing him to make love to her in the back seat of his new sedan "The Flying Cloud." Her slovenly but good-hearted roommate Bodey unrelentingly urges Dottie to alternatively strike up a relationship with Bodey's portly, cigar-chomping twin brother Buddy. Her upstairs neighbor and frequent visitor Sophie Gluck is a manic depressive German immigrant mourning the loss of her mother and Helena is Dottie's upscale and haughty school teacher friend and colleague.

The play ran for only 36 performances Off Broadway after its New York premiere 1979, which generally received positive reviews, including Clive Barnes who noted "This is not your usual Tennessee tourist trip" and added "But it is sweet, honest, compassionate, different and totally enjoyable." In a later revival in 1997 The New York Times deemed Creve Coeur "An odd and welcome play driven by the peerless beauty of a master stylist. Who can desire anything more?"

The Phoenix staged reading will feature Laura Piquado as Dorothea, Elise Stone as Bodey, Angela Vitali as Helena and Kathleen Ferman-Menino as Miss Gluck. The director is Karen Case-Cook.

All performances will be at The Wild Project in the heart of New York's East Village at 195 East 3rd Street, the newly renovated 99-seat "green" theatre with eco-friendly features like recycled glass tiles, bamboo plywood, low flush toilets, rooftop solar panels and energy-efficient glass windows.

A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur is the second of a 3-play reading series of Tennessee Williams' middle to late works presented by Phoenix Theatre Ensemble this season. Suddenly Last Summer was performed in September and In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel will follow in December.

Advance discount passes for the Williams reading series can be purchased by calling 212-352-3101 or visiting www.PhoenixTheatreEnsemble.org. A pay-what-you-can ticket policy will go into effect beginning on November 10.

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