The Miss Firecracker Conest

Written By Beth Henley
Music By Karen Marie Black

January 26-February 11, 2016
Thursday-Saturday Nights at 8pm
Sunday Matinee at 2pm

Performed at 5th Avenue Antiques

The place is the small Mississippi town of Brookhaven, the time a few days before the Fourth of July. Carnelle Scott (known locally as “Miss Hot Tamale") is rehearsing furiously for the Miss Firecracker Contest—hoping that a victory will salvage her tarnished reputation and allow her to leave town in a blaze of glory. The unexpected arrival of her cousin Elain, a former Miss Firecracker winner, (who has walked out on her rich but boring husband and her two small children) complicates matters a bit, as does the repeated threat of Elain’s eccentric brother, Delmount, (recently released from a mental institution) to sell the family homestead and decamp for New Orleans.

Featuring: Bliss Bailey, Hannah Stephens, Kelsey Crawford, Jared Funderburg, Franklin Slaton, and Virginia Barr

Beth Henley’s plays have been produced internationally and translated into over ten languages. CRIMES OF THE HEART (The Golden Theatre) and THE WAKE OF JAMEY FOSTER (Eugene O'Neill Theatre) were performed on Broadway. Off-Broadway productions include: THE MISS FIRECRACKER CONTEST, AM I BLUE, THE LUCKY SPOT, THE DEBUTANTE BALL, ABUNDANCE, IMPOSSIBLE MARRIAGE, and FAMILY WEEK. Her play RIDICULOUS FRAUD was produced at McCarter Theatre as well as South Coast Repertory Theatre. Ms. Henley’s THE JACKSONIAN premiered at the Geffen Theatre in January 2012 to great acclaim. It was performed Off-Broadway at the New Group. Studio Theatre produced the world premiere of her newest play, LAUGH in 2015. Beth Henley was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play for CRIMES OF THE HEART. Other awards include: American Theatre Wing 1998 Award for Distinguished Achievement in Playwriting Susan Smith Blackburn Finalist for CRIMES OF THE HEART and RIDICULOUS FRAUD; Richard Wright Literary Excellence Award 2000; New York Stage and Film Honoree, 2007; ATHE Career Achievement Award, 2010. She is a member of The Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Dramatist Guild and the Academy of Arts and Science.