Theatre--Performance

Acting Unlimited Inc., a local theater company founded in 1995 (which has produced over 40 stage productions), presents Before You, an original play, written and directed by Daniel Povinelli and co-directed by Walter Brown. The show opens on Thursday, January 8th and runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays (January 8-10, 15-17 and 22-24) at 7:30 pm at Cite Des Arts in downtown Lafayette. Tickets are $15.

Before You follows a single, thirty-something scientist named Jason, who is unhappy with his career and devises a "love equation" which he hopes will give him the key to a more fulfilling life. In increasingly surreal and menacing encounters, his boss, aided by a sexy colleague, tries to thwart his efforts to solve the equation. Jason must rely on his perpetually underemployed best friend along with the woman who may hold the key to his future to help hom find the solution--which may not lie in the realm of mathematics. The elusive solution is both simpler and more profound than he realizes...but will he recognize the answer when he sees it?

Povinelli is a professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and is one of the world's leading authorities on animal intelligence. After receiving his Ph.D. from Yale University, he was named one of the "Top 20 Scientists to Watch in the Next 20 Years" by Discover Magazine and his work has been covered by major international media (including Time, Newsweek, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Economist, National Geographic, the London Times, CBS News, National Public Radio, BBC Radio, BBC Television, Japanese Public Television, and Spanish Public Television). Povinelli has been writing fiction and poetry for over 35 years. This is his first public production of an original play.

Povinelli has been involved in local community theater for over five years as an actor, director, and set designer for the Evangeline Players, the Iberia Performing Arts League (IPAL), and Acting Unlimited. Povinelli is co-directing Before You with long-time collaborator Walter Brown, president and technical director of Acting Unlimited. Their co-directorial debut was a production of Thorton Wilder's stage classic, Our Town, for which they were awarded "Best Drama of 2006" by local critic, Ray Blum, who described the production as "one of the finest I have ever seen anywhere." The show won the Louisiana Association of Community Theater's Award for Best Technical Production of 2006.

For more information about Before You or for reservations or tickets, contact Cite Des Arts at 291-1122.