11/11/02

Contact: K.E. Schwab  -- 724-738-2199;  e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu

AWARD-WINNING ‘IN THE GARDEN OF LIVE FLOWERS’ TO CONCLUDE SRU AND COMMUNITY’S

YEARLONG RETROSPECTIVE OF ENVIRONMENTALIST RACHEL CARSON

          SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Slippery Rock University’s final event in its yearlong retrospective of the life of Springdale native Rachel Carson will be a five-performance run of the award-winning “In the Garden of Live Flowers” directed by visiting theater Professor Mirla Criste set for Nov. 20-24.

          Curtains in SRU’s Miller Auditorium are at 8 p.m. Nov. 20 through Nov 23, with a 2 p.m. Nov. 24 matinee. Tickets, available 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays or one hour prior to the performance at the Miller Auditorium Box Office, are $5 general admission and $3 for SRU students with ID. An opening night post-performance talk with the playwrights is planned.

          The two-act work, written by Attilio Favorini and Lynne Conner, theater professors at the University of Pittsburgh, won the 2002 Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award. The play, which contains strong language, is based loosely on the life of Rachel Carson, a renowned environmental advocate and author of the groundbreaking book “Silent Spring,” which is credited with launching America’s environmental movement. The environmentalist is played by Rachel Anderson, an SRU theater major from Pittsburgh.

          SRU and the Slippery Rock community combined efforts to observe “Rachel Carson Year,” calling on the university and community to remember her environment leadership.

          Director Criste, who is serving this semester as a theater instructor, earned her bachelor’s degree as a theater major and dance minor at Oberlin College. She made herBroadway debut in the original cast of “Miss Saigon.”

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