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<DOCID>incident.doc.txt</DOCID>
<AUTHOR>Liz Sippl and Stephanie Rice</AUTHOR>
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The Black Box Ensemble presented Incident at Thompson Sough and Other Stories by David Lee, on November 3 and 4.  The title performance piece, Incident at Thompson Slough is a narrative poem that was commissioned by the author for the Salt Lake City Olympics.  This is only the second time that the poem has been performed and Dr. Gary Balfantz, the director, states I am grateful to David Lee for giving us permission to stage his work. It has been a pleasure to see it take flesh and live on stage.  David Lee was Utahs first poet laureate and has brought his poetry to Lake State before, in April of 2004, when he was a guest lecturer for Dr. Balfantzs classes and held a poetry reading open to the public.  



The cast of 11 men and women began rehearsing in early October, giving them just a month to perfect the show.  This process was made more difficult by conflicting schedules which led to very few rehearsals that included the entire cast.  Some of the performers with monologues performed at The Superior Festival, after just two weeks of practicing their monologues.  They were critiqued by the guest scholars and given pointers on how to improve their performances.  Despite the number of conflicts, Dr. Balfantz says It has been a pleasure to see it take flesh and live on stage.  



The opening weekend of the show was very exciting for the cast, for several reasons.  First, almost half the cast had never been in a LSSU production before and some had never acted at all before.  In addition to that, the audience response was incredible.  All but three seats were filled on opening night and on Saturday, the show was sold out and people were turned away at the door.   It has also been a pleasure to watch audience responses to the fine performances by the students and to see the students pride in a job well done, says Dr. Balfantz.



Incident at Thompson Slough and Other Stories will also be presented this weekend, November 10 and 11, at 7pm and a matinee performance at 2pm on Sunday, November 12.  After the show closes on campus, the cast will be traveling to San Antonio, Texas, to perform it at the National Communications Conference, in front of national and international scholars and critics and, most importantly, David Lee, the author.  

The ensemble includes: Stacy Charbonneau as Darlene Ivie, Michael Donovan as Ollie McDougald, Jared Little as the Narrator-Clovis-Ledbetter, Chris Pollard as Deputy Sheriff Junior Shepard, Charles Rose as Sheriff Red Floyd, Elizabeth Sippl as Sheila Morris, Cynthia Staten as a performer and as the Assistant Director/Stage Manager, Kyle Stockdale, as Clarence Ivie, Steve Uger as Jerry Don Ivie, Aimee Walker as Maudie Fay Rayburn, and Justin Wright as Coach Bing Bingham.  



Two advance warnings: There will be NO intermission, and there will be some language used that may offend certain audience members.



Tickets for the show are $5 for students and $10 for the general public.  Its advised to get to the theatre early because the Black Box Theatre seats only 55 people, ticket sales have been going well and because the best seats (those closest to the stage) are filled quickly.





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