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April 16,2002
Professor
Tom Ziegler Opens New Play in Staunton
In 1869 Mrs.
Fanny Kemble took to the Philadelphia stage to perform one last
time. Tom Ziegler, professor of theater at Washington and Lee University,
with ShenanArts, brings her performance back to life in his new
play opening Thursday, April 18 in the Trinity Parish Hall in Staunton.
Mrs. Kemble’s Tempest continues April 19, 20 and 25-27.
Ziegler is a Rockbridge County resident who wrote the Broadway produced
play Grace and Glorie starring Estelle Parsons and Lucie Arnaz in
1996. Ziegler also co-authored the Screenplay for the Hallmark Hall
of Fame production of Grace and Glorie.
Renowned British actress Jane Ridley stars as the actress, abolitionist,
wife and mother, under the stage direction of Jere Hodgin, producing
artistic director of Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke.
Mrs. Fanny Kemble grew up in England and France and returned to
England where she began a stage career at Covent Garden. In 1832
her family received an invitation to tour the United States, a land
populated by outlaws, as Kemble referred to it. For two years she
and her father toured the United States and ended up in the company
of the well-bred Pierce Butler, who just as Kemble sails for England,
begged her to marry him. And marry him she did. Little did she know
that Butler owned 800 slaves, and, in the course of those first
few years, she learned that she was the 801st. Kemble sacrificed
everything to escape her bondage and ended up returning to the stage.
Ridley has over 20 years experience onstage in the United States
and the United Kingdom from where she hails. Last month she was
seen at Roanoke’s Mill Mountain Theatre in Arthur Miller’s
Death of a Salesman. She has been a member of the Shenandoah International
Playwrights’ Retreat Company for many years and first performed
Mrs. Kemble at the 2001 retreat, where Mrs. Kemble’s Tempest
was workshopped, and at a staged reading in Roanoke. Other recent
performances include Dr. Vivian Bearing in Wit for the Pennsylvania
Centre Stage and Kate Kingsley in Miracles for the Fulton Opera
House. Ridley has worked regionally in such theatres as, La MaMa
Etc, the Orlando and The Roundhouse Theatre Company. She is a member
of the Actors Equity Association and also teaches in the acting
program at Penn State University.
Tickets for all performances are available at the Bookstack in downtown
Staunton or by calling ShenanArts at 540-248-1868; 800-261-3979.
Tickets are $16 for Premier Seating, $12 for Adults and $6 for Youth.
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