Photo: Gail Hayes
Seated in this tense moment are Emma (Janice Williams), Rev. Ambrose (George Dixon) and, standing, Jefferson (Greg Henderson).
Event Information
A Lesson Before Dying
Drama by Ernest Gaines; adapted by Romulus Linney Directed by Jeff Lorick
Community Theatre of Terre Haute 1432 S. 25th St. Terre Haute, IN 47803
October 21,22, 23 and 28,29, 30
Box office 812 232 7172/3 ctthtickets@yahoo.com www.ctth.org
When the Community Theatre of Terre Haute’s Sharon Russell and Jeff Lorick were reading through plays for the season, they both agreed on Romulus Linney’s adaptation of Ernest Gaine’s A Lesson Before Dying.
All Volunteer
The Community Theatre of Terre Haute is an all volunteer organization with a long history. Sharon Russell has served in a variety of ways both on- and off-stage. She directed Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, this season’s opener.
Russell is currently taking a turn for his second year as the group’s president.
Powerful Theatre
“A Lesson Before Dying was such a powerful piece,” says Russell. ”Although it’s set long ago, it’s still timely. In fact, in light of recent events is seemed very important to bring it to our audience.”
Like Russell, the production’s director Jeff Lorick is a regular volunteer. By day, he’s Terre Haute’s Director of Human Relations. “The play is set in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1948,” he explains, “a time when the country was deeply divided by race issues. Jim Crow was in vogue and the greater population saw Afro-Americans as less than human.”
Lorick goes on. “The teacher—at least, the formal teacher—of A Lesson Before Dying’s lesson, is a man who hates the South, hates teaching and even hates himself. The prisoner’s godmother comes to him to help her godson rise to face his death like a man. For her that means a literate man. The title of the play uses the word ‘a’ lesson instead of ‘the’ lesson because each of these men learns something.”
