SIUE Department of Theater and Dance Presents The Great Divide
The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Department of Theater and Dance in partnership with award-winning playwright and librettist E.M. Lewis will present her new play, The Great Divide, opening at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 18 in the Katherine Dunham Hall Theater. The show will also be on stage at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, April 19-21 and at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 22.
The production is directed by department chair Chuck Harper and performed by SIUE performance students within the Department of Theater and Dance.
“This is the story of the longest, angriest, strangest presidential election this country has ever seen,” said Lewis. “This is a story about America, in this divided moment.”
“I am thrilled that we will be working with Ms. Lewis on a project this timely,” said Harper. “She will be writing this play as we rehearse, so our students will be a part of the writing process.”
General admission is $12 for ages 18 and older, $10 for ages 65 and up, and $10 for non-SIUE students with valid school identification, as well as SIUE faculty and staff. SIUE students with valid identification are admitted free.
Tickets are available at the Theater and Dance Department box office in Katherine Dunham Hall, room 1042b. Credit cards are accepted at (618) 650-2774 or toll free at (888) 328-5168, extension 2774.
For more information, email theater-tickets@siue.edu. For directions and parking information, visit siue.edu\maps.
Lewis was awarded a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, the 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowship in Drama, and a Playwriting Fellowship from the New Jersey Council for the Arts, and was a finalist for the Shakespeare's Sister Fellowship. She received the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for Song of Extinction and the Primus Prize for Heads from the American Theater Critics Association. Her work has been produced around the world.
Many noted theater companies and organizations have supported and encouraged Lewis in her work, including: The William Inge Center for the Arts, The Lark, Page 73, Project Y, Ashland New Plays Festival, Arkansas New Play Festival, PlayFest Santa Barbara, EcoDrama Festival, HotCity Greenhouse Festival, Great Plains Theater Conference, Last Frontier Theater Conference, TimeLine Theater, Playwrights Theater of New Jersey, Theatre Latte Da, Moving Arts, Passage Theater, and 16th Street Theater.
SIUE’s Department of Theater and Dance presents four plays and one dance concert during its October through April season. All productions are open to the community at large. The Department of Theater & Dance is part of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Photo courtesy of Valerie Goldston: The cast of the Great Divide.
