Westport Country Playhouse Presents a Sunday Symposium on Playwright David Hare 10/4

Westport Country Playhouse will present a Sunday Symposium titled, "The Personal Is Political: The Work of David Hare," following the Sunday, October 4, 3 p.m. matinee performance of "The Breath of Life," written by Hare and directed by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director. Guest speaker will be Susan Balée, who teaches at Temple University.

The Playhouse Sunday Symposium program, free and open to the public, provides the audience with guest speakers' in-depth insights and observations about the production, followed by an interactive dialogue. David Kennedy, Westport Country Playhouse associate artistic director, will moderate the Sunday Symposium. It is open to all, including those who attend a performance of "The Breath of Life" at another time. The Sunday Symposium is supported, in part, by the White Barn Program of the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

"I'm quite excited for Susan to share her insights with us," said Kennedy. "She has the discerning eye of a scholar, the passion of a fan and the ardor of someone who cares deeply about the theatre, and particularly about the plays of David Hare. It will be a great conversation."

Susan Balée teaches in the Intellectual Heritage program at Temple University and also writes fiction, memoir and essays about literature. She regularly reviews books for The Hudson Review and The Philadelphia Inquirer, and has published essays in the Times (London) Literary Supplement, The Weekly Standard, The Women's Review of Books and many other publications. Her essay on playwrights David Hare and Tom Stoppard appeared last year in The Michigan Quarterly Review, and she is also featured (with Annette Bening, Robert Redford, Alfred Molina, Pico Iyer, Aimee Mann and several others) on recent National Endowment of the Arts audio programs about writers Jack London, Leo Tolstoy and Marilynne Robinson.

"The Breath of Life" is a tale of two seasoned women, whose lives are interwoven through their relationship with a pivotal, yet offstage, male character, Martin. Madeleine Palmer, played by Jane Alexander, is a retired curator, living alone on the Isle of Wight. One day to her door comes Frances Beale, played by Stockard Channing, a woman she has met only once, who is now enjoying sudden success, later in life, as a popular novelist. Over the course of one day and one night, the two women reflect on their lives and their relationship with Martin, their joint obsession.

"The Breath of Life" will run from September 29 - October 17.

About the Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse, a not-for-profit theater, serves as a treasured home for the performing arts and is a cultural landmark for Connecticut. Under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos and management direction of Michael Ross, the Playhouse creates quality productions of new and classic plays that enlighten, enrich and engage a diverse community of theater lovers, artists and students. The Playhouse's rich history dates back to 1931, when New York theatre producer Lawrence Langner created a Broadway-quality stage within an 1830s tannery. The Playhouse quickly became an established stop on the New England "straw hat circuit" of summer stock theatres. Now celebrating its 79th season, Westport Country Playhouse has produced more than 700 plays, 36 of which later transferred to Broadway, most recently the world premiere of "Thurgood" and a revival of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" with Paul Newman, and in earlier years "Come Back, Little Sheba" with Shirley Booth, "The Trip to Bountiful" with Lillian Gish, and "Butterflies Are Free" with Keir Dullea and Blythe Danner. For its artistic excellence, the Playhouse received a 2005 Governor's Arts Award and a 2000 "Connecticut Treasure" recognition. It was also designated as an Official Project of Save America's Treasures by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is entered on the Connecticut State Register of Historic Places. Following a multi-million dollar renovation completed in 2005, the Playhouse transformed into a year-round, state-of-the-art producing theater, which has preserved its original charm and character. In addition to a full season of theatrical productions, the Playhouse serves as a community resource, presenting educational programming and workshops; a children's theater series; symposiums; music; films; and readings.

For more information or ticket purchases, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets may be purchased online at www.westportplayhouse.org.