fst-venue © Greg Wilson 2013
A Lesson Before Dying
By Romulus LinneyA Lesson Before Dying
By Romulus LinneyJefferson, an innocent young man, is condemned to death in backwoods Louisiana in 1948. At the trial his lawyer, trying to save his life, called him no more a human being than a hog. In prison, he acts like one, insisting that he will be dragged like that hog to his death in the electric chair. His godmother asks a schoolteacher to teach him to die like a man. The teacher, Grant Wiggins, struggling to quit his poor parish school and leave the South, faces both Jefferson and himself as execution day arrives.
Ernest J. Gaines' celebrated novel makes an engrossing, moving and finally devastating play for the stage.
Cast
Gloria Bailey*
Antonio D. Charity*
Chris Curran*
Nate Jacobs
Jason Quinn
Lanette Ware*
L. Trey Wilson*
GLORIA BAILEY Talking With (Florida Studio Theatre); Sister Song, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Anniversary Waltz, Royal Family (Royal Palm Boca Raton); Fat’s The Duke and the Lady (Stage Works); You Can’t Take it With You (Show Boat); Food and Shelter, Bingo Night, Space Hunter (American Stage). Ms. Bailey works in Special Education for the Pinellas County Schools.
ANTONIO D. CHARITY Stage: You Shouldn’t Have Told (Playwrights Horizon), My Children My Africa (Caribbean American Repertory), A Sweetness in the Struggle (Negro Ensemble Company), Osun: Goddess of Love (Nuyorican Poets Café), Affairs of an Aging Heart (Billie Holiday Theatre). Television: The Corner, Homicide, 100 Centre Street, Law and Order: SVU, The Prosecutors, All My Children, As the World Turns.
CHRIS CURRAN Florida Studio Theatre: 2: Goering at Nuremberg. National and International Tours: The Caretaker, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Camelot, The Sound of Music, Oliver. Regional Theatre: The Merchant of Venice (Shylock); Macbeth (Macbeth); The Diary of Anne Frank (Otto Frank). New York: Lend me a Tenor.
NATE JACOBS Stage: A Spoon Full of Collard Greens which Jacobs also wrote (Arts Council Theatre, Winston-Salem, N.C.), The Kentucky Cycle, Abe Lincoln in Illinois (The Asolo Theatre), The Amen Corner, A Raisin in the Sun, Bubbling Brown Sugar (The Players Theatre), and numerous Cabaret shows. Television: The Bobby Jones Gospel Explosion, Common Ground. Music: Recording artist with Henry Porter and The Love Campaign, The Westcoast Gospel Chorus, Emmanuel. Jacobs is fine arts instructor at The Westcoast School for Human Development and has written and directed many musicals and plays.
JASON QUINN New York: Macbeth, The Cherry Orchard, Leave it to Jane, Our Town (Circle in the Square P.W.), Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 (Gorilla Rep), New York Actor, Welcome to the Moon (Manhattan Theater Club Studio), Rhythm of Cy (Duplex Cabaret Theater). National Tours: Eckerd Theater Company, National Theater of the Performing Arts. Regional Theater: Schoolhouse Rock (American Stage), Oklahoma (Ohio Outdoor Historical Drama Association), Webb’s City – The Musical (Ruth Eckerd Hall), Home Free (Jobsite Theater). Film: The Brothers. Training: Circle in the Square Theatre School.
LANETTE WARE Fulton Opera House: All It Takes (Lead). Florida Studio Theatre: As Bees in Honey Drown. Film: Shaft with Samuel L. Jackson, Pootie Tang with Chris Rock. TV: Deadline (Det. Denise McBride); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Sheena Reid); All My Children (Dr. Owens); The Beat (Doreen Wells). Member: SAG, AFTRA, AEA, and lifetime member of the Actors Studio.
L. TREY WILSON Six Degrees of Separation, Exhibit #9, Leader of the People, A Few Good Men, and numerous Shakespeare plays. Plays written: Three Part Disharmony, Good People, All About Esther. Film: Celebrity, The Spanish Prisoner, The Doris Day Collection.
Creative
Director | Brian Richmond
Stage Manager | Jennifer L. Boris*
Costume & Set Designer | Marcella Beckwith
Lighting Designer | Eric C. Craft
