Separated at Birth: The Lincoln/Darwin Plays February 13, 2009

THEATER COMPANY OF LAFAYETTE TO PRESENT NEW PLAY FESTIVAL COMMEMORATING 200TH BIRTHDAY OF LINCOLN AND DARWIN

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day – February 12, 1809. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of their birth, the Theater Company of Lafayette (TCL) will present Separated at Birth: The Lincoln/Darwin Plays from February 13 – March 8, 2009, at the historic Mary Miller Theater in Lafayette.

Separated at Birth consists of the full-length Monkey Men, an award winning play by local playwright Leroy Leonard; and Abe and Chuck (Way) Off Broadway, an evening of original short plays. The two productions will run in repertory over the show’s four week run.
Some of the plays in Separated at Birth are period pieces, and some are set in contemporary times. But all are world premieres, all are in some way related to Lincoln and/or Darwin, and all are funny, edgy, and thought provoking.

Monkey Men tells the story of the Piltdown Man, one of the greatest hoaxes of all time. When some tantalizing counterfeit bones of the "missing link" emerged in England in 1912, scientists went scurrying in a thousand wrong directions. Forty-one tenuous years later, Piltdown was finally revealed as a masterful forgery. Who perpetrated this spectacular joke on the scientific world? Why? National pride, personal vendettas, wishful thinking, and a keen sense of the absurd merge to create a fast-moving tale of what we can prove, what remains a mystery, and why we care.

The seven plays of Abe and Chuck (Way) Off Broadway include:
1. “Lizzy and the Lincolns,” by Rob Gerlach. Lizzy, an ex-slave, who is Mary Todd Lincoln’s dressmaker teaches the President and his wife a lesson about the racial divide and about bravery in peace and war.

2. “The Debate,” by Don Fried. Against the backdrop of some oversexed earthworms, Charles Darwin and his friend and supporter, Thomas Huxley, relive the famous Oxford Debate about evolution and engage in a heated debate of their own.

3. “Beard Pressure,” by Evan Marquez. Lincoln and his secretary discuss the wisdom of the president's tendency to accept fashion advice from children.

4. “The E-Words,” by Emily Golden. Two college girls play a drinking game as they try to uncover the connections between Lincoln and Darwin for a school assignment.

5. “What Would Abe Do?” by Nora Douglass. An absent-minded middle school teacher races against the clock to reveal the legacy of Abraham Lincoln in ten minutes.

6. “Alfred and Eddy,” by CP Stancich. In a running sketch framing the evening, Edgar Allen Poe and Alfred Lord Tennyson bemoan the fact that there are no play festivals about them.

7. “The Incredible Mr. Lincoln,” by David McClinton. A British tourist recounts her strange trip to America, in which the Lincoln Memorial comes to life and wreaks havoc.

Separated at Birth is running in conjunction with a number of other activities – a “Birthday Party,” an art show, a poetry reading, and other events – being conducted by the Lafayette Public Library and the Lafayette Cultural Arts Commission to commemorate Lincoln’s and Darwin’s joint birthday.

The festival also marks the start of a campaign by TCL to raise $12,000 to replace its 35 year-old lighting system. According to lighting expert and TCL Board Member Brian Miller, “The current system has outlived its useful life by more than a decade, and replacement parts are no longer available. We need to replace the entire system, and we need to do it soon!”

Performance Dates: Friday/Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m.
Monkey Men:

Friday, February 13

Saturday, February 21

Friday, February 27

Sunday, March 1

Saturday, March 7

Abe and Chuck (Way) Off Broadway:

Saturday, February 14

Friday, February 20

Sunday, February 22

Saturday, February 28

Friday, March 6

Tickets: Adult $15, Student/Senior $12, Children $10 (appropriate ages 10 and up)

Tickets available online at www.tclstage.org or through the box office, phone 720-209-2154. Discounts are available for online ticket purchase and for online purchasers who are on the TCL email mailing list.

Two-show package: Adult tickets for both shows can be purchased online for $22.

Theater Location: Mary Miller Theater, 300 E. Simpson Street, Lafayette

Photo L-R: Don Fried as Darwin and Don Thumin as Lincoln

Photo Credit: Madge Montgomery