University of New England

UNE Maine Women Writers Collection hosts Nov. 14th performance of 'Perdita,' based on life of Lewiston native

A staged reading of “Perdita,” a one man, multi-character show based on the life of Lewiston native and international activist Perdita Huston, will be hosted by the University of New England's Maine Women Writers Collection on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006 at 6 p.m. in the St. Francis Room of the Ketchum Library, University Campus, Biddeford.

“Perdita” explores the life of this pioneering Maine woman through the eyes of her son, Pierre Diennet, who wrote and performs the play. This performance is produced by The Opera House Arts at the Stonington Opera House and is one of a statewide tour of performances during November and December 2006

Perdita Huston
Huston left Maine to study at the Sorbonne in Paris, beginning an international career that spanned five decades until her swift death from ovarian cancer in 2001. Her coming of age in Maine during the 1950s forged her into an early, “second wave” feminist and activist whose passion was the realization and defense of basic human rights for women of the global south.

Diennet's script weaves his recollections of his mother, her two husbands, and her lovers together with his own movement toward understanding and appreciation for this complicated woman.

“Pierre’s stunning script and virtuoso performances illuminate his mother as a woman of tremendous energy, passion, and independence,” said Judith Jerome, the play’s director and co-artistic director of Opera House Arts.

Huston worked all over the world in many capacities, including as Peace Corps regional director for North Africa, the Near East, Asia and Pacific; and later as director for Peace Corps programs in Mali and Bulgaria. She was pioneering not only in her work, which included authoring four books, but in the choices she made and actions she took around her illness and death.

Pierre Diennet
Diennet spent his young life following Huston as she traveled around the world promoting suffrage and civil rights. He had trekked through India, Pakistan, Algeria, Haiti, Switzerland, England and the United States before he was 16, always staying in a different house, never going to the same school. He portrays 14 characters in the play, which is told through the eyes of a son whose resentment at his fatherless and rootless childhood gradually grows into respect as he reviews his mother's life - and watches her die.

Diennet lives in New York City. He became interested in theater when he moved with his mother to London in the late 1980s. He has an undergraduate degree in theater from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, as well as graduate training in acting from the National Theater Conservatory. He performs regularly in regional theaters around the country, including the Public Theater in Lewiston, and he appeared as the Moose Boy in Opera House Arts' 2004 production of “The Ferry Musicals” at the Stonington Opera House.

“Perdita” was first presented as a work-in-progress in April by Opera House Arts, first at the Stonington Opera House and then at the dedication of Perdita Huston's papers and books at the Maine Women Writer's Collection at the University of New England's Westbrook College Campus in Portland.

Other Performances
Other performances around the state include: Nov. 1: Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, Portland;Nov. 3: Dover-Foxcroft, Center Theater; Nov. 4: Belfast Maskers; Nov. 9: Brunswick, Bowdoin College; Nov. 10: Gardiner, Johnson Hall; Nov. 11-12: Eastport, Eastport Arts Center;  Nov. 16-18: Franco-American Heritage Center, Lewiston; Nov. 25-26: Bangor, Bangor Opera House (Penobscot Theater); Dec. 12: University of Maine Presque Isle; and Dec. 13: Stonington Opera House.

Information
For more information of the UNE performance, contact Cally Gurley, curator, Maine Women Writers Collection, (207) 221- 4324. For more information on other performances, call (207) 367-2788 or visit the Opera House’s website at www.operahousearts.org.

(Press release issued Oct. 31, 2006)