Lincoln Community Theatre productions
Lincoln
Community Theatre's remaining productions for the summer are "Steel Magnolias,"
to be presented July 11-19, and "1776," scheduled for Aug. 1-9. The box office
at the Johnston Center for Performing Arts on the Lincoln College
campus is open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday; call (217)
735-2614. For more information, visit
www.geocities.com/lincolncommunitytheatre.
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Review by Bobbi Reddix
Leslie Beaudet is a student at the
prestigious Dillard University in Louisiana, rooming with three
distinctly different young African-American women. The three come
from different financial stations, have diverse family backgrounds
and have a wide range of views on every topic imaginable. The one
thing the three roommates do have in common, though, is their view
on the beautiful, intelligent, yet mysterious Leslie. Although
strong and intelligent, there is something definitely different
about her.
In the Beaudet family, Leslie is the
glue that keeps this once-proud Haitian family together; she is the
rock on whom everyone depends since the departure of their father.
Her black Indian mother relies on her for absolutely everything
since the departure of Leslie's father. Her younger sister,
18-year-old high school dropout Laetitia, is the mother of two
children. She calls on Leslie for a sympathetic ear and secretly
envies Leslie's dark good looks and her keen intelligence. Her
brother, Pierre, has fallen into the dark underworld of drug dealing
and works as a pretty boy for the local bigwig. When he and Leslie
were younger, he failed her at a crucial moment in her life and has
never lived it down. He stays stands aloof from her and the rest of
the family and envies her strength.
[to top of second column in
this review]
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Trying to keep together her
dysfunctional family and attend college are stressful enough, but
when things begin to fall apart all around her, Leslie has had
enough, and through voodoo, she taps into a power she never knew she
possessed. Leslie's mask of perfection begins to crack after a
series of murders in the New Orleans community in which she lives.
When all clues point to Leslie as a murderess, her friends and even
her family are beginning to learn that they know very little about
her. They all discover that when crossed, with the help of a little
voodoo, the lovely Leslie can become dangerous as well.
Omar Tyree
is a New York Times best-selling author, a journalist, lecturer,
poet and recipient of the 2001 NAACP Image Award for the best work
of fiction. His best-selling novels include "Flyy Girl," "A Do Right
Man," "Single Mom," "Sweet St. Louis," "For the Love of Money" and
"Just Say No!" He lives in Charlotte, N.C.
[Bobbi Reddix,
Lincoln
Public Library District]
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