Karen Y. Dyer

Dyer Communications

dyercommunications@gmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 11, 2010

“LONG TIME” ANTICIPATION ENDS AS AWARD-WINNING PLAY RETURNS TO L.A.

Los Angeles, CA – P.J. Gibson’s award-winning stage play, Long Time Since Yesterday, returns to Los Angeles after 15 years. This year’s performance will be held at Lucy Florence Cultural Center
located in Leimert Park Village at 3351 West 43^rd Street, Los Angeles, CA. The five-time AUDELCO award winning play will run two consecutive weekends, Friday, December 3, 2010 through Sunday December 12, 2010.

Set in the mid-1980s, the play centers on a reunion of a group of middle-aged women who gather to grieve together after the funeral of one of their college girlfriends. The story unfolds as the intertwined lives of these women are examined as each shares her insights into a life that ended with an unexpected suicide. The play confronts sex, race, politics, and gender without flinching. The play reveals unabashedly the “strange closeness women have with women” and how it blurs the lines of the fragile boundaries between friendships and romantic love. First staged in 1985, the play ran twice at the New Federal Theatre in New York and won five prestigious AUDELCO awards, including Best
Dramatic Production and Playwright of the Year. The last Los Angeles production was in 1995 and earned an NAACP Image Award for Best Director.

The play reunites two cast members, who also are the show’s producers and director. The pair has produced numerous plays that highlight the stories of African American women as told by African American women playwrights. Long Time Since Yesterday is no exception as it is a story that not only explores the relationships between women, particularly African American women, but also reveals the complexities of being professional, middle-aged, female, and black. As P.J. Gibson herself divulged, “If I live to be 150, I still won’t have enough time to write about all the black women inside of me.”

The final four performances will run this weekend: Friday, December 10th at 8 PM; Saturday, December 11th at 3 PM; and two shows on Sunday, December 12th at 3 PM and 8 PM.

P.J. Gibson has written 30 plays, several of which have totaled 47 productions, of which Long Time Since Yesterday alone has had upwards of 60 productions. Ms. Gibson’s plays and poetry performances have been presented throughout the United States, Europe, and Africa. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Ms. Gibson holds an M.F.A in Theatre Arts from Brandeis University and a B.A. in Drama, Religion and English from Keuka College.

Due to strong adult themes, this production is open to mature audiences only. To purchase tickets and/or for more information, contact Lucy Florence Cultural Center at (323) 293-1356. All media inquiries, please contact Karen Y. Dyer at dyercommunications@gmail.com.

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