[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] 'Women Who Drink' takes the stage Friday night

[Lisa Yayla]

Sawyer County Record, WI, USA
Wednesday, October 10, 2007

'Women Who Drink' takes the stage Friday night (features Leslye Orr)

This Friday night, Hayward audiences will get a chance to experience the St. Paul theater scene, when the Park Theater presents "Women Who Drink," a comedy performed by Dreamland Arts of St. Paul.

In this show, the outrageous Leslye Orr conjures up 16 ladies named after their favorite drinks, while bartender Kathleen Sullivan sets up each barfly with comic twists.

Now in its 17th year, the play has delighted audiences in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, St. Cloud, Stillwater and in New Richmond. It is recommended for mature audiences.

Actress Leslye Orr is a playwright, performer and teacher with an extensive background in theater education for children and adults. She is the creator of the acclaimed "Hand in Hand," the comedy "Women Who Drink," and "The People on the Corner," a children's book on inclusion and disabilities.

She was a company member and voice coach at The Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis for ten years. She was a member of Ballet of the Dolls, and has written scripts and performed with Illusion Theater, Jungle Theater Outreach Series, Dudley Riggs and The Arkansas Children's Theater.

Orr was awarded a Jerome Fellowship and a Jones Commission through the Playwrights' Center and a 2004 Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Born legally blind, Orr has for the past 20 years taught workshops nationally in which she upholds the possibilities of disabilities. Orr and her husband, Zaraawar Mistry, are the owners of Dreamland Arts, a 40-seat theater attached to their house in St. Paul.

Tickets for the Park Theater performance of "Women Who Drink" are $15 in advance, available at Art Beat on Second Street, or $18 at the door. Doors open at 7 p.m.; curtain is at 7:30.

For more information, call Art Beat at 934-2780 or go to www.parktheaterproject.com