Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2006

Contact: Contact: Mike Emery
713.743.8186 (office)
713.415.6551 (pager)
pemery@uh.edu

August Strindberg’s “Miss Julie” was banned for sexual content shortly after it was first produced in Sweden in 1888, but it left an indelible mark on the history of drama. Now, the University of Houston’s School of Theatre is giving Houston audiences a chance to see what all the fuss was about.

The school’s upcoming production of “Miss Julie” will kick off a five-show run at 8 p.m. on Sept. 29 at the Lyndall Finley Wortham Theatre.

“Miss Julie” frankly depicts the sexual tension between the mistress of a house and her father's valet. Strindberg was among the first playwrights to make extensive use Sigmund Freud’s theories regarding the subconscious and was a major influence on subsequent dramatists.

“Not only is Strindberg playing on the distinction of lines between the classes, but also on the pure ‘lust’ between male and female,” said the play’s director, Carolyn Houston Boone, associate professor of acting and directing. “One only has to look at today's movie plots and aggressive, earthy playwrights to see that he was leading the way in public acceptance of real people out of the straight-laced Victorian world.”

General admission tickets are $15; $12 for UH faculty, staff and alumni; $10 for seniors or groups of 10 or more, and $7 for students. Ticket information can be obtained by calling the Wortham Theatre box office at
(713) 743-2929. For more information about the UH School of Theatre, visit the Web site: http://www.class.uh.edu/theatre/home.html.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.