LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - Lock Haven University will host a reading and discussion of the play ”Susquehanna: Mighty, Muddy, Crooked River of the Long Reach.” Actress Laurie McCants will be the guest presenter. Following the reading, McCants will lead a discussion of the play. LHU theatre students will perform a scene from the play. The event will take place in the Multipurpose Room of the Parsons Union Building on the LHU campus at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 19.

McCants co-founded the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble in rural Pennsylvania in 1978. Over the years, roles she has played include Serafina in “The Rose Tattoo,” Hannah in “Arcadia,” Blanche in “Streetcar Named Desire,” Agave in “The Women of Bakkhos” and Winnie in “Happy Days.” Directing experience includes “Waiting for Godot,” “Our Town,” “Hard Coal” (created with co-director James Goode) and “The Women of Lockerbie.”

The Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble serves as a national example, proving the viability of a resident, professional ensemble theatre rooted in its community. An active member of the Network of Ensemble Theaters and Theatre Without Borders, McCants carries her work beyond Bloomsburg. With BTE, she performed in a five-nation African tour. She toured her music-theatre piece “The Alexandria Carry-On,” created in collaboration with composer/performer Theo Bleckmann, to Egypt, and she collaborated with the Egyptian puppet theatre company WAMDA in creating the bilingual “Our Shadows.”

McCants has served as an adjunct professor at Bucknell University since 1986. She continues making original work with her theatre company. In 2006 she and BTE created “Susquehanna: Mighty, Muddy, Crooked River of the Long Reach.” She is currently developing a solo music-theatre piece, “Industrious Angels,” inspired by the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

The theatre students’ performance will be under the direction of Laura Bird, associate professor in the LHU performing arts department.

McCants' reading is sponsored by the departments of English and Performing Arts and the Women's Studies Program, and supported by a diversity and equity grant from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Office of the Chancellor.