Trustus Theatre Concludes 28th Season with Collected Stories, Directed by Milena Herring on the Thigpen Main Stage

Trustus Theatre concludes its 28th Season as it brings Collected Stories, directed by Milena Herring, to the Thigpen Main Stage. Collected Stories opens Thursday August 15th and runs through August 18th, 2013 - with a special "Columbia Theatre Curtain Call" event following the last performance. This event will bring many of Columbia's theatres, theatre artists, and patrons together to celebrate another thrilling year of performances in 2012 and 2013.

Collected Stories was scheduled to be performed in May 2013 at the Columbia Museum of Art as the closer of this season's Off-Off Lady Series. This series was created to take theatre into the community by using non-traditional performance spaces. As with any adventurous effort, sometimes there are too many variables to allow for success. Due to technical limitations, the show was rescheduled for August and moved to the Thigpen Main Stage at Trustus to allow patrons the opportunity to have the best experience with this powerful script and two dynamic Trustus performers.

Collected Stories, by Donald Margulies, is a provocative and topical play which received its Broadway premiere in 2010. The show is set in a small Greenwich Village apartment over six years. The production, which stars acclaimed Trustus Company Members Elena Martinez-Vidal as Ruth and Elizabeth Gray Engle as Lisa, is directed by Herring, who has returned to her native Columbia after nearly 30 years in New York.

"While centered around the developing relationship between two women, the story is actually about who owns your memories," said Herring, who acted and directed in New York for more than 15 years. "The idea of intellectual property rights isn't necessarily provocative," Herring said. "But as the audience eavesdrops on the six-year evolving relationship between these women, I think viewers might change their minds."

The story features Ruth Steiner, a respected short-story writer and professor in her mid-fifties, who has carved out a comfortable life for herself in a Greenwich Village apartment she has occupied for decades. Lisa Morrison is a callow yet talented 26-year-old graduate student and aspiring writer, a child of suburban privilege, when she meets Ruth and offers to become her assistant. Over six years, as Ruth and Lisa's relationship evolves from mentor/protégé to loving friends to adversaries -- and ultimately disintegrates --the story touches on issues of age, artistic license, and betrayal with humor and pathos.

Herring previously was the artistic director of Leap Productions in New York. Among the Off-Broadway shows she directed there were Eleemosynary by Lee Blessing, Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies, A Cowboy's Dream by John Foley, Painting Churches by Tina Howe, Oil City Symphony by Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick, and Smoke on the Mountain by Mark Hardwick and Connie Ray, to name just a few.

Though Herring is making her Trustus directorial debut, her roots in Columbia theatre are deep. The eldest daughter of the late actress, director and drama teacher, Bette Herring, she cut her teeth at Town Theatre under the tutelage of the beloved children's theatre director Mary Lou Kramer. She is a graduate of the USC Theatre department.

Collected Stories comes to the Trustus Thigpen Main Stage on Thursday, August 15th at 8:00pm and runs through August 18th, 2013. Main Stage shows start at 8:00 pm Thursdays through Saturdays, and Sunday matinees are at 3:00pm. Tickets are $22.00 for adults, $20.00 for military and seniors, and $15.00 for students. Half-price Student Rush-Tickets are available 15 minutes prior to curtain.

The "Columbia Theatre Curtain Call" event will follow the Aug. 18th performance. The event starts at 6pm and it is an open event that is free to the public. Join us as OneColumbia produces a celebration of last season's theatrical entertainment. Cash bar will be serving, and various theatre groups will be re-counting their successes and challenges throughout the last season.

Trustus Theatre is located at 520 Lady Street, behind the Gervais St. Publix. Parking is available on Lady St. and on Pulaski St. The Main Stage entrance is located on the Publix side of the building.

For more information or reservations call the box office Tuesdays through Saturdays 1-6 pm at 803-254-9732. Visit www.trustus.org for all show information and season information.

PROMO PHOTO BY: Richard Kiraly, In the photo: Elena Martinez-Vidal and Elisabeth Gray Heard Engle

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