Benefit Reading for New Harding Lemay Play 'The Oakland Sisters' Set for February 28 & 29

"The Oakland Sisters," a new play by Emmy-winning Another World writer Harding Lemay, will get intimate New York reading. Stageplays Theatre Company will present the February 28 and 29 benefit readings that will be directed by Tom Ferriter.

The new play is characterized as a “family drama about four sisters bound by love and dependence upon each other. Upon the death of their father, the sisters inherit equal shares in the family timber business. When the youngest sister marries a French Canadian Catholic, her husband is rejected by the domineering oldest sister­—whose irrational devotion to her younger sister leads to the destruction of the marriage and a custody battle over her children. The two middle sisters must choose whom to defend and whom to abandon.”

The cast will include Elizabeth Stiles, Ben McHugh, Aubrey Mae Davis, Chandon Jones, Kerry McGann, Andrew David Rabensteine and Andrew Gelles. Maureen Van Trease provides accompaniment.

Having written for television since 1968, Harding “Pete” Lemay is former head writer for the NBC daytime serial Another World, writer for Guiding Light, story consultant for One Life to Live, and the creator and head writer of the serial Lovers and Friends. Plays written for the stage include "Look At Any Man," "The Little Birds Fly," "The Joslyn Circle, Return Upriver," "From A Dark Land," "The Death of Eagles," "How He Became A Writer," "The Off Season" (all originally produced at New Dramatists), and "Escape Route." "From A Dark Land" received its European premiere at the National Theatre of Romania –Craiova, in a co-production with Stageplays Theatre Company. His later plays include "Interior Landscape," "A Far Far Better World," and "In the Eye of Heaven," along with "Scrutiny," "The First Born," and "The Heir Apparent" (all originally presented by Stageplays). A two-time Emmy Award winner (Outstanding Writing – Another World and Guiding Light), Pete has also written the original television dramas They and Whose Life? (both produced on NBC). He is the author of "Inside Looking Out" (Harper’s Magazine Press; National Book Award Nomination – Biography), and "Eight Years In Another World" (Atheneum). Pete Lemay currently conducts classes in drama and fiction at the New School's Institute for Retired Professionals.

Performances are February 28 at 7 PM and February 29 at 7:30 PM at Theater at St. Jean, which is located at Lexington Avenue and 76th Street in Manhattan. For more information, visit Stageplaystheatre.com.