Pitt Repertory Theatre Opens 2005-2006 Season of "Memory Plays" with Harold Pinter's Old Times, Sept. 21-Oct. 9

PITTSBURGH-The University of Pittsburgh Repertory Theatre's 2005-06 season-built around the theme "Memory Plays"-opens with Harold Pinter's Old Times, to run Sept. 21-Oct. 9 in the Henry Heymann Theatre in Pitt's Stephen Foster Memorial, Forbes Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard, Oakland.

Directed by Pitt Associate Professor of Theatre Arts W. Stephen Coleman and starring three Pitt Department of Theatre Arts faculty members-Melanie Dreyer, Doug Mertz, and Kathryn Spitz-Old Times is the story of two women and a man who spar with each other over the ownership of memories dating back to a mysterious relationship they may have shared. Pinter's suspenseful, minimalist, and ambiguous writing has an uncanny way of recreating the rhythms of speech and human interactions.

Old Times will be performed at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $19 for reserved seats, $17 for Pitt faculty and staff, and $10 for students. For more information on seniors, groups, Pitt Alumni Association members, or the Encore! Card season pass, call 412-624-7529 or visit www.pitt.edu/~play.

Other performances in Pitt Rep's 2005-2006 season are:

Pericles (Oct. 26-Nov. 6)

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Russian guest artist Eduard Butenko

Charity Randall Theatre, Stephen Foster Memorial

Shakespeare's rarely performed romance is an adventure-filled fable of fortune and forgetfulness set in the Mediterranean.

A Lie of the Mind (Nov. 30-Dec. 11)

By Sam Shepard

Directed by Melanie Dreyer

Henry Heymann Theatre

An open-eyed dissection of love under the worst of circumstances, written by an American master.

Tales of the Lost Formicans (Feb. 8-19)

By Constance Congdon

Directed by Robert C. T. Steele

Charity Randall Theatre

A hilariously heartbreaking suburban fantasia commenting on the American dream, as depicted by an Alzheimer's patient and his family living under the gaze of some curious aliens.

Dancing at Lughnasa (March 29-April 9)

By Brian Friel

Directed by Holly Thuma

Henry Heymann Theatre

A haunting tribute to family and the human spirit told by a young man who recalls the harvest festival in a tiny Donegal village where he was raised by five irrepressible, dancing sisters.

Each production will be accompanied by "Memory Speaks!" a free two-hour public seminar designed to connect the season's theme to contemporary ideas about memory found in cognitive science, sociology, and history.

The first one, "Embodied Memory," will be held at 2 p.m. Sept. 24 in the Heymann Theatre. Guest speakers include Merlin W. Donald, a leading cognitive neuroscientist at Case Western Reserve University, and James L. McClellan, adjunct professor of neuroscience at Pitt and codirector of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition.

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9/15/05/tmw