Holly Allen Stars in Tina Howe's PRIDE'S CROSSING for Lipscomb University Theatre

Lipscomb University Theatre will continue its 2011-12 season with Pride's Crossing, Tina Howe's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, March 29-April 7, in Shamblin Theatre.

Directed by Lipscomb theatre professor Beki Baker, whose recent directing credits include Julius Caesar for the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Pride's Crossing offers an experience to "savor… a play I think you will remember forever," according to Clive Barnes of the New York Post.

Jack Helbig wrote in Booklist, "Howe has always been a graceful playwright, adept at dialogue and capable of finding the drama in even the most mundane moments. But rarely has her previous work exhibited the emotional depth and power she displays in Pride's Crossing."

In the play, 90-year-old Mabel Tidings Bigelow–the first woman to swim the English Channel from England to Franc –insists on celebrating her daughter and granddaughter's annual visit with a croquet party. As the game unfolds, she relives vignettes from the last 80 years, interweaving past and present to reveal the precise moment of opportunity gained and love rejected, the moment that defined her life.

Playing the leading role is Holly Allen, whose Nashville credits include the Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Nashville Children's Theatre, Tennessee Women's Theatre Project, Actor's Bridge Ensemble and Circle Players.  The ensemble also includes Bonnie Keen, Welsey Paine, Phil Perry, Larry Bridgesmith and Matthew Raich.

Pride's Crossing was named Best American Play by the New York Drama Critics Circle and a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The March 30 performance of Pride's Crossing will be attended by playwright Tina Howe, who also won awards for her works Painting Churches and Coastal Disturbances, as part of the Southern Literary Festival held on the Lipscomb campus. A post-production talk-back with Howe, beginning at 9:30 p.m., is free and open to the public.

A two time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Howe has been a visiting professor at Hunter College in New York since 1990. Among her many awards are an Obie for distinguished playwriting, a Tony nomination for best play, an Outer Circle Critics Award, a Rockefeller Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Pride's Crossing will be performed March 29-30 and April 5-6 at 7 p.m., March 31 and April 7 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are available through the Lipscomb Box Office at (615) 966-7075

Jeffrey Ellis is a Nashville-based writer, editor and critic, who's been covering the performing arts in Tennessee for more than 25 years. He is the recipient of the Tennessee Theatre Association's Distinguished Service Award for his coverage of theatre in the Volunteer State and was the founding editor/publisher of Stages, the Tennessee Onstage Monthly. He is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and is the founder/executive producer of The First Night Honors, held during Labor Day Weekend, which honor oustanding theater artists in Tennessee in recognition of their lifetime achievements and includes The First Night Star Awards and the Most Promising Actors. Midwinter's First Night, held the first Sunday in January after New Year's Day, honors outstanding productions and performances throughout the state. Further, Ellis directed the Nashville premiere of La Cage Aux Folles, The Last Night of Ballyhoo and An American Daughter, as well as award-winning productions of Damn Yankees, Company, Gypsy and The Rocky Horror Show, with Ellis honored by The Tennessean as best director of a musical for both Company and Rocky Horror.

More Articles by This Author...