RLT's Wit Explores the Impact of Cancer & Holds Benefit with Rex Healthcare for the Rex Hospital Foundation's Cancer Center's Angel FundFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE RLT's Wit Explores the Impact of Cancer & Holds Benefit with Rex Healthcare for the Rex Hospital Foundation's Cancer Center's Angel Fund Wit opens at Raleigh Little Theatre on Friday, February 10, 2006 @ 8 pm in RLT's Cantey V. Sutton Theatre, 301 Pogue Street, Raleigh NC 27607 (3 blocks off Hillsborough and 3 blocks from Cameron Village). Due to its content and subject matter, this production is not recommended for young children. Tickets may be purchased by calling the RLT Box Office at 919.821.3111 or online at www.raleighlittletheatre.org. RLT is partnering with Rex Healthcare to hold a benefit for The Rex Hospital Foundation's Cancer Center's Angel Fund on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at 8 pm. Tickets to the benefit are $10 and can be purchase by calling the RLT Box Office at 919.821.3111. The Angel Fund is a special fund designed to help cancer patients with special financial needs as they are undergoing treatment for cancer. In addition to ticket sales, a special quilt will be raffled off that evening with proceeds going to the fund. Donations can be made directly to the Angel Fund by sending a check with "Angel Fund" in the memo line to: Rex Hospital Foundation, 2500 Blue Ridge Road, Suite 325, Raleigh, NC 27607. For more information about the Angel Fund or The Rex Hospital Foundation, call 919.784.4434. The 1999 Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama, Wit is the story of Vivian Bearing, Ph.D., a renowned, although arrogant, professor of literature. She has spent her life studying and teaching the difficult Holy Sonnets of the 17th-century metaphysical poet, John Donne. At the age of 50, she is diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer. A tough, brilliant woman, Vivian approaches this disease as she does her studies, in an aggressively inquisitive and intensely rational manner. Using theatrical devices such as flashback, narration and soliloquy, Wit is Vivian's story because she is in the fight of and for her life. In RLT's production, the role of Vivian is vividly portrayed by veteran RLT actress, Mary Rowland (Raleigh) last seen on the RLT stage as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire for which she received RLT's Cantey Award for Best Actress. It's a physically demanding for Rowland, as she is on-stage for every minute of the 90-minute intermission-less performance. The role also requires the actress to shave her head completely bald for the part and for Rowland, with hair down to midway of her back, that sacrifice was particularly difficult but eagerly approached. Rowland felt that it was absolutely necessary to shave her head for the role but will still wear a wig "out in the real world" when not on stage, particularly at her day job, teaching theatre and communications at Wake Tech. "I find that the play is less about patient's rights than it is about identity: who we are and what we make of ourselves. It's about knowledge, even self-knowledge and the value of knowledge. And while that is important, ultimately knowledge needs to be balanced out by kindness and human concern." Producing a play about the notorious "C-word," is a challenge for any theatre. Cancer and uplifting are not usually two words that are linked together, and can be a hard sell to audiences. But in Wit, playwright Margaret Edson uses cancer as a tool for exploring human relations, the meaning of life and how we exit that life. We know from the opening scene that Vivian Bearing will die. The play explores issues of human rights as humanity and humiliation are set in opposition to one another throughout Bearing's stay at the hospital. What rights do patients have? Do they have the right to privacy? Do they have the right to know their chances for survival? Do they have the right to dignity? Do they have the right to determine the manner of their deaths? That exploration of emotion, relationships, language and the human condition is what made this play so attractive to Raleigh Little Theatre - and one that audiences shouldn't shy away from, says RLT's artistic director, Haskell Fitz-Simons. "Although the play is centered around the death of its lead character, it really is about life: its meaning and our struggle to understand what that meaning is to each of us." Wit Sponsors Wit is presented with the support of Rex Hospital, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, Progress Energy, The News & Observer, Empire Properties and Two Men and A Truck ®. Addition support comes from Raleigh Parks and Recreation, City of Raleigh Arts Commission and the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County. PERFORMANCE & TICKET INFORMATION: WHAT: Wit WHEN: WHERE: Raleigh Little Theatre's Cantey V. Sutton Theatre, 301 Pogue Street (2 blocks off Hillsborough Street), Raleigh, 27607 TICKETS & PRICES BOX OFFICE: 919.821.3111 / www.raleighlittletheatre.org ACCESSIBILITY All performances are wheelchair accessible. ABOUT RALEIGH LITTLE THEATRE Raleigh Little Theatre is a professionally directed, community oriented non-profit organization founded in 1936 whose purpose is to enrich, educate and entertain the community by providing a superior theatre experience. RLT produces over 11 productions annually attended by over 36,000 individuals and supported by the work of hundreds of volunteers. RLT is funded in part by community support, the City of Raleigh and the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County. You are here: Home > Press Releases > RLT's Wit Explores the Impact of Cancer & Holds Benefit with Rex Healthcare for the Rex Hospital Foundation's Cancer Center's Angel Fund |