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NEWS RELEASE
Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu
)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
7/29/2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES Northwestern State alumna Aimee' Lasseigne will be in the cast of The Philomel Project: a barbarous pleasure at the ninth annual New York International Fringe Festival beginning August 12.
The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) is the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues.
The Philomel Project is being performed by the Austin, Texas, based theatre, Refraction Arts Project. The work is "a darkly comic, irreverent and lusty re-imagining of Ovid's bloody tale. Six women wield feathers, flying eggs, synchronized swimmers and the Queen of Soul as instruments of a precise and delicious revenge."
The performance allows Lasseigne, a graduate of the Louisiana Scholars' College, to combine her love of theatre with a scholarly approach to classical texts as she did when performing in the NSU Theatre and taking classes in the Scholars' College.
"The first time I recall being introduced
to the character of Philomel was when we
read T.S. Elliot's The Waste Land in Text and Traditions
class. Getting to recite during the play the inscription above
the gate of hell from Dante's Inferno in the original
text that my ancestors spoke is icing on the cake," said
Lasseigne.
Before working with Refraction Arts Project, Lasseigne sang Broadway tunes at La Casa Sena Cantina in Santa Fe, was invited by playwright Howard Korder to participate in a public reading of one of his works in progress and performed with the internationally known Theatre Grottesco. She has studied clowning with Avner the Eccentric and Julie Goell in Maine, worked with Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan on his world premiere of Handler in Atlanta. Most recently Lasseigne performed with the improvisational troupe The Heroes of Comedy in their hit show Start Trekkin'.
Performance dates of The Philomel Project are August 12 and 17-20. For more information on the schedule, go to www.fringenyc.org.