FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 9, 2006
Media Contact           
Cate Foltin, Managing Director, Raleigh Little Theatre
919.821.4579, ext. 234, cate@raleighlittletheatre.org
                         
RLT’s Wit Opens This Friday with Special $10 Tickets for Sunday’s 3 pm Matinee
 
Wit opens at Raleigh Little Theatre tomorrow, 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.  
 
For Sunday’s (February 12, 2006) 3 pm matinee performance, all tickets are $10.  This performance is also audio-described for the sight impaired and is ASL interpreted for the Deaf.
 
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
BY: Margaret Edson

WHEN:
February 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 & 25, 2006 @ 8 pm
February 22, 2006 @ 8 pm Benefit for Rex Healthcare’s Cancer Center’s Angel Fund
February 12, 19 & 26, 2006 @ 3 pm

WHERE: Raleigh Little Theatre’s Cantey V. Sutton Theatre, 301 Pogue Street (2 blocks off Hillsborough Street), Raleigh, 27607
 
TICKETS & PRICES
Thursdays: $15 adult / $12 students & seniors
Fridays: $18
Saturdays: $20
Sundays: $15 adult / $12 students & seniors
$10 for everyone on Sunday, February 12 @ 3 pm
$10 for the Rex Healthcare Cancer Center Angel Fund Benefit on February 22, 2006
Group Rates available for groups of 10 or more – for details call 919.821.3111
 
BOX OFFICE: 919.821.3111 / www.raleighlittletheatre.org
 
ACCESSIBILITY
All performances are wheelchair accessible.
ASL performance Sunday, February 12 @ 3 pm
Audio Described performance Sunday, February 12 @ 3 pm
 
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.

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