Booth One - Celebrating Culture And Conversation

We welcome to the Booth this week the very talented and vibrant Jerre Dye. Recommended by a recent genius guest, Cecelia Wingate, Jerre is a Southerner by birth, having grown up in a small town in Mississippi. He is a playwright, actor, director and opera librettist, now living in Chicago. Fellow Mississippi playwright Beth Henley, whose play Crimes of the Heart earned her a Pulitzer Prize in 1981, praises his lyrical voice and distinctly Southern sensibilities, proclaiming him "a vibrant force in the American theater." Jerre's plays Cicada and Distance were both nominated for Joseph Jefferson awards. First off, Frank tells us about seeing our friend Christine McHugh's one-woman play Parents Must Be Dead at the Greenhouse Theatre. By all accounts, the evening was a smashing success, with a full house and great audience response. Congratulations, Christine! We learn that the somewhat odd title refers to a friend of Christine's preference listing on a dating website. A bit maudlin, but at least he's honest. G