The African Community Theatre (ACT) of Kent State University presents its second production of the 2006-07 season with the performance of   “Long Time Since Yesterday,” a potent all-female drama by P.J. Gibson, to be presented April 13-15 and April 20-22 in the African Community Theatre in Oscar Ritchie Hall on the Kent Campus.

The play, winner of the 1985 Audelco Award for best Drama, is about the relationships and interrelationships among five women who reunite at the funeral of a former college roommate who committed suicide. At the home of their deceased friend, the women begin to confront the truth about their own lives. They reveal their own private struggles and emotional scars that they have hidden all of their lives.  Although all these women are professionals, they each have held within themselves painful memories. In spite of personal success for these women, they have all experienced childhood emotional traumas that have led to their success – yet, continue to haunt them in painful dreams and memories. At different points each woman reveals her painful “secret” to one another. What unfolds is a literate, humorous, yet sensitive and painful look at the lives of contemporary black women as they struggle with their emotional wounds to meet the demands of the eighties.

This play has adult themes and is not recommended for children under 16 years old.

The cast includes the following: Africa Turner from Pepper Pike; Nicole Haugabrook from Warrensville; Brandi Davis from Warren; Erin Mims from Warrensville Heights; Cara White from Warren; Brittany Mayti from Sagamore Hills; Taylor McFarland from Aurora; and Kaisha Sherrills from Columbus. Director of the production is Dr. Fran E. Dorsey who enters his twenty-eighth year as director of the African Community Theatre.

This will be the last play of the season for the African Community Theatre until fall 2008. The theatre, which is a part of the Department of Pan-African Studies located in Oscar Ritchie Hall on the Kent State University Campus, will be undergoing a major renovation beginning in August 2007 and it will take about a year to complete the project.  The African Community Theatre will be involved in several community theatre projects in Portage County during the renovation process.  The offices of the Department and the Theatre will be temporarily moved to the Lincoln Building; telephone numbers will not change.

Tickets are $10 for general admission and $7 for students and senior citizens. Friday and Saturday performances begin at 8 p.m. with Sunday matinee performances only at 3 p.m. For further information call 330-672-2300 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 330-672-0151 after 5 p.m.