"Mame" Opens Summer Lyric"s 43rd Season
When Mame opens the 43rd season of Summer Lyric Theater tonight (June 17), the audience will be treated to a production filled with talent and experience. Take Beverly Trask, for instance she played the lead role in Summer Lyric's 1982 production of Mame and easily slips into Mame-isms such as, “Life is a banquet, and most poor fools are starving to death.”
Beverly Trask (left) appears as Vera and Elizabeth Argus as Mame in the classic musical comedy presented by the Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre. (Photo by Michael Palumbo)
Trask, also an associate professor of dance at Tulane, has a different part this season in the supporting role of Vera, the witty sidekick to flamboyant Mame, portrayed by Elizabeth Argus, a Newcomb College alumna.
Several others involved in the show were part of the production 28 years ago, including B. Michael Howard, who is directing this summer's Mame as he also did in 1982. He also is artistic director for Summer Lyric.
For Trask, working with Howard, Argus, Diane Lala (choreographer) and Rick Paul (set designer) was special because each one was in some way a part of the original production. “It was like a nostalgic reunion,” she says.
The story follows the life of Mame, the sharp-witted free spirit who takes in her orphaned nephew, Patrick, and raises him in a far-from-traditional way. Performances are tonight through Saturday (June 19) at 8 p.m. and on Sunday (June 20) at 2 p.m. in Dixon Hall on the uptown campus.
The Summer Lyric season continues with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum July 8â“11 and The Music Man July 29â“Aug. 1.
More information, including a synopsis of each production and campus parking instructions, are available online.
Tickets prices for each show range from $26 to $35 and may be purchased at the box office Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. and one hour before each performance. An opportunity to see a summer performance for free also is available for front-of-house volunteers who help tear tickets, hand out programs and seat theater-goers. Any interested volunteers can e-mail Charlie Farve Hayes, operations manager, or call 504-865-5269.
