On Stage Tonight - "Waiting for Lefty"

In the crush of events this week, I'm afraid I have been remiss, gentle readers, in not telling you more about Waiting for Lefty, the play taking the stage tonight through Saturday at Marshall University.

These days the Department of Theatre is (apparently) going by a new name: the Marshall Theatre Alliance - but they're still turning out the kind of top-notch quality productions audiences have enjoyed year after year.

In 1935 Waiting for Lefty was the most widely performed play in America — and the most widely banned.

The story begins and ends in a raucous union meeting, but the real event of the Group Theatre’s famous production took place in the theatre itself. "Lefty" changed people’s idea of what theatre was and could be. More than entertainment or even a serious examination of contemporary issues, theatre at its best can be a living embodiment of shared values and aspirations.

In 1935 the Group Theatre proved that in a fragmented society of wounded individuals, theatre can bring people together and make them whole.

Marshall Theatre Alliance takes up the Group’s timeless challenge to make theatre that breathes energy, life, and new hope into us all.

Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odetes will be presented tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. at The Playhouse at Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center in Huntington.