PULLMAN, Wash. — Women from the Washington State University School of Music and Theatre Arts are planning a benefit performance of “A…My Name is Still Alice” for 8 p.m., Jan. 25 and 26, in Bryan Hall Theatre at WSU.
The performance will benefit the Visual, Performing and Literary Arts Committee (VPLAC) of WSU and is the idea of WSU faculty members Julie Anne Wieck, Lori Wiest, Teresa Wolf-Spencer, formerly of the University Theatre and Phyllis Gooden-Young of the University Theatre.
“A…My Name is Alice” is a satirical musical revue focusing on women’s issues that was first produced by the Women’s Project in the 1980s. Although “Alice” seemed an unlikely candidate for theatrical stardom, it won the Outer Critics’ Circle Award and enjoyed a long run off Broadway. It was revived in 1990 and again audiences flocked to see it.
After this second success, the creators of “Alice,” Julianne Boyd and Joan Micklin Silver, decided to create a sequel focusing on more current issues. “A…My Name Is Still Alice” opened at New York’s Second Stage in November 1992 after premiering at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre the previous summer. Like the original, this “Alice” has a list of more than two-dozen comedy writers, lyricists and composers and explores the lives of contemporary women.
The revue’s musical numbers feature gospel, country western and rock as well as some pop ballads. Its vignettes run the gamut from a single woman who insists on registering at a department store bridal registry to a touching monologue of a middle-age woman trying to sell her life to the movies to give it meaning.
The performance features Wieck, Wiest, Wolf-Spencer and Gooden-Young. Other performers include Jane Lear of the University of Idaho with musical accompaniment provided by Michelle Mielke and Dave Jarvis of WSU’s School of Music.
Ticket prices are $10 for nonstudents and $5 for students. Tickets may be purchased at the door or in the west entrance of the Compton Union Building the week of Jan. 21.
The performance is funded by a grant from the College of Liberal Arts and is receiving additional support from Bryan Hall Service Center.
