NOTE TO EDITORS AND REPORTERS: To schedule interviews with the director or cast members, please contact the Cal State L.A. Public Affairs office in advance at (323) 343-3050.

Cal State L.A.’s stage transforms into 14th century France

Student-actors don ‘Red Noses’ for winter production

Los Angeles, CA  -- A story about a priest who finds that laughter eases fear and suffering in the midst of France’s Black Plague in 1348, “Red Noses” transcends time and offers a familiar scent to humanity and religion.

Featuring a troupe of Cal State L.A. student-actors as clowns, the performance will be staged Feb. 25-27 and Mar. 3-4 and 6, at the State Playhouse on the CSULA campus. The winter production is presented by CSULA’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.

The playwright, Peter Barnes, writes in his forward to the play: “‘Red Noses’ is a letter from a transfigured world, much like ours, where statues come to life and human beings turn to stone. It’s a letter wishing you good thoughts, but chiefly, good feelings.”

The dark comedy follows the main character, Father Flote, who discovers that “Heaven’s to be had with (his) humiliation. God wants peacocks not ravens, bright stars, not sad comets, red noses not black death. He wants joy.” As the world crumbles around them, Flote and his band of “red-nosed zanies” go out into the country to spread happiness.  

“In CSULA’s production,” said CSULA Professor Meredith Greenburg, the play’s director, “Flote’s followers include a nun who is longing for intimacy, a mute who communicates in the language of bells, a blind juggler and his assistant, a stuttering comic, dancing Siamese twins, joined literaly at the hip, and two blood-thirsty warriors that happen to be gentle artists on the inside.”

She added, “The Church, the flagellants and the corpse-pickers are their enemies; jealous of the attention the Floties receive, until the plague ends. Then a darker time begins—the return to normality.” 

Written in 1978, and first produced in 1985, “Red Noses” is a recipient of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play.

Tickets are $16 general admission, $12 for seniors/students and $8 for CSU students. For ticket reservations, go to /dept/theatre_dance/purchasetickets.php For details, call (323) 343-4110.

CALENDAR LISTING

WHAT:           “Red Noses,” presented by the Theatre Arts and Dance Department at Cal State L.A. 

WHEN:           Feb. 25-Mar. 6, 2011.

Feb. 25-26 and Mar. 3-4 at 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 27 and Mar. 6 at 2:30 p.m.

WHERE:         State Playhouse, on the Cal State L.A. campus. The University is located at the Eastern Avenue exit, San Bernardino (I-10) Freeway, at the interchange of the 10 and 710 Freeways. Public (permit dispenser) parking available in Lot 5 or upper level of Parking Structure C.  For campus map or directions: /univ/maps/cslamap.php

INFO:             Admission is $16 for general, $12 for seniors/students and $8 for CSU students. For ticket reservations, go to /dept/theatre_dance/purchasetickets.php For details, call (323) 343-4110.

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Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 215,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu