NEWS RELEASE

For Release: Through March 3, 2013

For More Information:
David Wedekindt, Center for the Arts
716-645-6775 or [email protected]

Buffalo, NY - The Center for the Arts, University at Buffalo welcomes Forgiving John Lennon from February 27 - March 2, 2013 at 7:30pm and March 3, 2013 at 2:00pm in the Black Box Theatre, located at the Center for the Arts, North Campus. 

Forgiving John Lennon, by William Missouri Downs and directed by Professor Stephen Henderson is best described as a serious comedy written as an homage to Somali-Dutch feminist activist and writer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who in 2005, Time Magazine named among the Most Influential People in the World.  It exposes how comic our attempts at tolerance and inclusion can often appear to those whose very lives depend on these issues.

The play is about two progressive professors named Joseph and Katie who teach at a small liberal arts college.  The president of the college has mandated that all the professors do more to promote cultural diversity.  It soon becomes a competition between rival departments to see who can invite to campus the most diverse artist or speaker.  Joseph (a professor of Tibetan literature) and his wife Katie (a professor of pottery art) are about to stage a coup.  Their guest artist is a female African poet from Somalia. When she arrives, Joseph and Katie go out of their way to show her that they are open- minded about all cultures.  Soon Joseph and Katie's progressive agenda is called into question. Are they really understanding, progressive thinkers or academic conformists who are willing to do anything to win tenure?  They find that the road to a world where we can "imagine" no countries and "nothing to kill or die for" won't be as easy as they thought. 

The cast of  Forgiving John Lennon is Ashley Wurtz, Catherine Espinal, Mike Dempsey, and Giancarlo Gioia.

Tickets for Forgiving John Lennon are $20.00, Students and Seniors $10.00. Tickets are available at the Center Box Office (Mon-Fri 10 am-6 pm) and tickets.com.  To charge tickets call 1-888-223-6000.  For more information call 716-645-2787 or visit www.ubcfa.org.