FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Playwright Carolyn Gage to speak at Bates

LEWISTON, Maine -- Playwright Carolyn Gage, a longtime activist for women's theater and lesbian theater, will deliver a lecture titled "Lizzy Borden and Lesbian Theater: Axes to Grind" on Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives at Bates College. The public is invited and admission is free.

Gage was named National Winner of the Nancy Dean Distinguished Playwright Award, given annually at the Sisters on State Lesbian Theatre Conference in New York. Her collection of plays, "The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and Other Plays," was named national finalist for the 1995 Lambda Literary Award in drama. Her one-act play, "Harriet Tubman Visits a Therapist," was a national winner of the 1996 Perishable Theatre Women's Playwright Festival in Providence, R.I. In 1988 she won the Oregon Playwrights Award from the Oregon Institute of Literary Arts, and she was named contributing editor to the national feminist quarterly, "On the Issues," which featured her on a cover in 1995.

Carolyn Gage's play "The Ugly Ducklings" will be performed at 8 p.m. on (Friday) October 3 in Gannett Theater at Bates. Lauren Todd, a Bates junior from Cherry Valley, Mass., is directing the drama about the destructive effects of homophobia on girls and young women. The play also will be performed at 8 p.m. on Oct. 4, and 2 p.m. on Oct. 5. Tickets are $2 for general admission and may be purchased at the box office. For reservations and additional ticket information, call the box office at 207-786-6161.