Contact:
Elizabeth Blevins, Director, Office of Communications
Phyllis Noah, Communications Coordinator
Office: (740) 351-3810; FAX: (740) 351-3179; Cell: (740) 464-4854
940 Second Street – Portsmouth, Ohio 45662
E-mail: eblevins@shawnee.edu or pnoah@shawnee.edu
Web site: www.shawnee.edu

            Auditions for Alfred Uhry’s “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 7 and Wednesday, Sept. 8 at the Vern Riffe Center for the Arts Kahl Studio Theatre.
            The roles for three males and four females are needed for the play that will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 12 and Saturday, Nov. 13 in the Kahl Theatre.
            Actors should have a two-minute memorized contemporary monologue from existing theatre literature prepared for the audition.
            “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, in December of 1939. “Gone with the Wind” is having its world premiere, and Hitler is invading Poland, but Atlanta's elitist German Jews are much more concerned with who is going to Ballyhoo, the social event of the season.
            Especially concerned is the Freitag family, bachelor Adolph, his widowed sister, Beulah (Boo) Levy, and their also widowed sister-in-law, Reba. Boo is determined to have her dreamy, unpopular daughter, Lala, attend Ballyhoo, believing it will be Lala's last chance to find a socially acceptable husband.
            The play was the winner of the 1997 Tony Award for Best Play and described as a “delightful comedy freighted with an uncomfortable message” by the New York Post. Uhry is also author of “Driving Miss Daisy.”
            For more information, contact associate professor John Huston, (740) 351-3335 or e-mail jhuston@shawnee.edu.