Sue Schleifer's letters form basis for September play, August writing workshop in Lafayette

Today’s blog post has been submitted by the play's author.

Sue Schleifer took down from the shelf in her closet a box of letters from the 1970s that she had been gifted several years prior. She was finally ready to read the letters. Her plan was to use them for her next writing project, but an idea had not yet emerged by the time she headed to the Port Townsend Writer’s Workshop in June 2015.

At dinner, the first night of the workshop, Schleifer described to her tablemates the letters she had recently finished reading. The woman to her left said, “That sounds like a play.”

“Yes, it is a play!” as the lightbulb flashed before Schleifer’s eyes.

Never mind that she had never written a play previously. She had acted in high school and seen many plays throughout her life in locations around the United States and in London. With persistence, many drafts, and the help of actors and other writers, three and half years later her play is ready to be staged.

The dramatic comedy titled "Take Down the Letters," directed by Christy Leichty, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 14-15 and 2 p.m. Sept. 16 at Cité des Arts, 109 Vine Street, Lafayette.

Play Synopsis: It’s been two years since her husband’s untimely death. Lynn believes she’s ready to move forward and begins to clean out his closet. When she discovers a box of letters high up on the shelf, she’s not so sure about her decision. Inviting her mother along for the ride, they meet a creative and confused young woman searching for freedom and love, discover secrets, and much more.

Acting in the play are Katryn Schmidt, Sally Hamana, and Jessica Romero. Both Schmidt and Romero were recently nominated for Rosie Awards, the Lafayette version of the Tony Awards. Also nominated were Director Leichty and Stage Manager/Props/Costume Designer Gina Barrone. Tim Stark is the lighting designer and Hector LaSala the set designer. 

This project is supported in part by ArtSpark, an Individual Artist stipend supported by the Lafayette Economic Development Authority and administered by the Acadiana Center for the Arts.

As part of the ArtSpark grant, Schleifer will offer a free creative writing workshop for teens and adults titled, “The Letter You Saved.” The free workshop will be 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 25, at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, 101 W. Jefferson Street, Lafayette. Participants are asked to bring a letter, email or text message to the workshop. It will be used as inspiration for a poem or scene for a play. To register, email Paige@acadianacenterforthearts.org or call (337) 233-7060.

Tickets for the play may be purchased at the Cité des Arts: http://www.citedesarts.org/shows.

Louisiana Book News is written by award-winning author Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes Louisiana romances and mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her first book in each series is FREE to download as an ebook, including "Emilie," book one of The Cajun Series, "Ticket to Paradise," book one of The Cajun Embassy series and "A Ghost of a Chance," the first Viola Valentine mystery.

'Streetcar Named Desire' a One Book, One Festival selection for this year's Louisiana Book Festival

The Louisiana Book Festival has chosen Tennessee Williams’s iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning play “A Streetcar Named Desire” as its official 2017 One Book, One Festival selection. The play, which opened 70 years ago on Dec. 3, 1947, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, is considered to be one of Williams’s greatest and has been in near continuous production and adapted to film, television, opera and even ballet. 

A performance of “A Streetcar Named Desire” opens Friday, Oct. 13, and runs through Oct. 29, 2017, at Cité des Arts of Lafayette.

Inaugurated in 2008, the One Book, One Festival program invites attendees to read the same title in advance and later join the scholar-led discussion with others during the festival on Saturday, Oct. 28. This year’s discussion will be led by Gary Richards, associate professor and chair of the Department of English, Linguistics & Communication at the University of Mary Washington and scholar of southern literature. He is the author of “Lovers and Other Beloveds: Sexual Otherness in Southern Fiction, 1936-1961” as well as numerous essays on southern fiction and drama.

This year’s festival will also include a program featuring WYES’s Peggy Scott Laborde, host of “Steppin’ Out,” in conversation with WWL-TV news anchor, Eric Paulsen. Eric, an award-winning journalist who has spent the last 30 years on WWL’s highly-rated morning and noon news programs, conducted the last broadcast interview with Williams, an interview held on the second floor of what was then “Marti’s” restaurant on the corner of Rampart Street in New Orleans. The program at the 2017 Louisiana Book Festival will include a screening of excerpts from that last interview.
The Louisiana Book Festival is free, open to the public, and takes place annually in the heart of Baton Rouge in the Louisiana State Capitol, State Library of Louisiana, Capitol Park Museum, and tents on neighboring streets. For more information, visit www.louisianabookfestival.org.

Louisiana Book News is written by journalist Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes Louisiana romances and paranormal mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. The first books in her award-winning series are FREE as ebooks! For more information and to sign up for her newsletter visit www.cherieclaire.net.

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