WEST LIBERTY HILLTOP PLAYERS PERFORM AT TOWNGATE THEATRE

WHEELING, W.Va. (February 18, 2008)— The Hilltop Players of West Liberty State College bring their talents to Oglebay Institute’s Towngate Theatre for a special one-night performance of the decade’s most honored American drama- “Doubt, A Parable” by John Patrick Shanley.

The performance takes place at 8 p.m. Friday, February 29 at Towngate Theatre, 2118 Market Street, Wheeling.

Shanley and his play have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony award, the Obie award, and the New York Drama Critic’s award for best play.  A film, starring Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, is currently in production.

“This special performance is a way to introduce the Wheeling audience to all the good things that take place theatrically at West Liberty,” Kate Crosbie, Oglebay Institute director of performing arts, said.

The 90-minute (without intermission) drama takes place at a Catholic school in a working class neighborhood of New York City in 1964, a time when value changes were altering the Church, as well as relationships between races, generations, and the sexes.

The drama unfolds when a conservative principal of the school, a Roman Catholic nun, played by Gretchen Schneider of Wheeling, suspects a young charismatic forward-thinking priest, portrayed by Michael Davenport of Cadiz OH, of seducing an eighth grade student, who is also the school’s only black student. The play centers on her conviction that she must bring the priest to justice, even based on incomplete evidence, and his battle to save his reputation and place in the Church. Completing the cast are: Jenna Petardi of Pickerington OH as the boy’s young impressionable teacher and Fireisha A. Withrow of Wheeling as the boy’s mother.

The production is directed by John E Reilly and designed by Meta Lasch, both members of the West Liberty State College Arts and Communication Department faculty. The production stage manager is Lindsey Mick of Wellsburg.

Towngate’s curtain is at 8 p.m. Friday, February 29. Admission is $12.50/$11 OI members.

Call the Stifel Fine Arts Center at 304.242.7700 to reserve seats. For those buying seats at the door, Towngate’s box office opens one hour before all shows and can be reached at 304.233.4257.

Refreshments are available at Towngate Theatre and parking is curbside or in the nearby Center Wheeling Parking Garage. Located at 2118 Market St., Wheeling, Towngate is easy to find and located just across the street from St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in the historic Centre Market district of Wheeling.

This program is made possible through the generous support of the members of the Institute as well as with financial assistance from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the WV Commission on the Arts.