Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama Opens New Season With "Lysistrata"

"Lysistrata" is directed by Drama faculty member Jed Allen Harris.

Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama opens its 2005-06 season with Aristophanes' "Lysistrata," the classic Greek "make love, not war" comedy, October 11 -15 in the Philip Chosky Theatre on the Carnegie Mellon campus.

Elizabeth Bradley, head of the School of Drama, says the play is empowering and compelling.

"The notion that women, appalled by the cost of war, would rise together in protest to thwart aggression is an enormously empowering and compelling theme for young theatre artists to explore in our contemporary world," Bradley says. "Disenfranchised by their gender in their society, the success of their protest shows us that outsider voices can effect great change. But in addition, we must recall that Aristophanes wrote a comedy, and the ingenious schemes and stratagems of ancient Greece remain captivating for today's audiences."

A favorite of antiwar activists throughout world history, this play is one of Aristophanes' greatest surviving works. Lysistrata and her female comrades take control of the Athenian Acropolis, outraged by the ongoing war between the men of Athens and Sparta. Led by Lysistrata, the women of Athens and the women from Sparta join forces to declare a nationwide moratorium on all sexual congress until the men end the war.

The School of Drama's production will be directed by faculty member Jed Allen Harris. A former associate artistic director at City Theatre, Harris also served as artistic director at Theatre Express. His productions of Samuel Becket's "Endgame" at Theatre Express and David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross" at City Theatre were listed as two of the top 10 productions of the decade by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

The School of Drama is one of the nation's most distinguished degree-granting conservatory theatre programs and is one of five schools within Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine Arts. The College of Fine Arts is a community of nationally and internationally recognized artists and professionals organized into: Architecture, Art, Design, Drama and Music, and their associated centers and programs.

Tickets for Lysistrata can be purchased by contacting the Drama box office at 412-268-2407. The box office is open from noon to 5 p.m., Monday-Friday.

For more on Lysistrata visit, http://www.cmu.edu/cfa/drama/season/current_season/Lysistrata/lysistrata.html

For more on Director Jed Allen Harris, visit http://www.cmu.edu/cfa/drama/people/faculty/Jed%20Allen%20Harris.htm

For more on the College of Fine Arts, visit http://www.cmu.edu/cfa/

Eric Sloss
October 11, 2005