CHAPEL HILL -- Deep Dish Theater Company’s seventh season continues with Athol Fugard’s "A Lesson from Aloes." It will be directed by Joan Darling and will run from October 18 through November 10.

Set in 1963 South Africa, "A Lesson from Aloes" is a haunting portrait of three long-time friends, white couple Piet and Gladys and black South African Steve. Split apart by the machinations of the apartheid regime, they meet for dinner amid suspicion that one of them is a traitor to their revolutionary cause.

“'Aloes' doesn’t just deal with the issue of apartheid, but what its hatred did to everyone involved,” said Darling. “I love this play because it catches you below the level of your conscious mind,” she added. “It is moving and sad, but also uplifting.”

She likens the play’s characters to the plant for which the play is named. Darling describes the aloe as “probably one of the ugliest plants on earth, surviving everything – yet it has a heart that is very healing. Like the aloe, despite the horrible things these characters have been through, they continue to be good people and care deeply for one another.”

"A Lesson from Aloes" won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play when it premiered in 1980. Athol Fugard, South Africa’s leading playwright, is best known for his plays "Master Harold and the Boys," "The Road to Mecca," and "The Blood Knot." His latest play, "Exits and Entrances," made its New York debut last spring, and the movie version of his novel, "Tsotsi," won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2005.

"Aloes" director Joan Darling was recently honored by the Museum of Broadcasting as a “Woman Who Made It.” She was the first woman nominated for an Emmy for directing, and she has won an Emmy and a Directors Guild Award. Her first directing assignment was for the cult favorite "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," and she subsequently directed such shows as "M*A*S*H"; "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"; "Magnum P.I."; "Rich Man, Poor Man"; "Doc"; "Rhoda"; "Doogie Howser, M.D."; and "Civil Wars." Darling’s episode “The Nurses” for "M*A*S*H" was nominated for an Emmy and is included in the "Best of M*A*S*H" collection; and her “Chuckles the Clown” episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was named by The New York Times as the funniest half hour ever on television and selected by TV Guide as the number one television episode of all time.

Darling also created the “Directing the Actor” workshop for the Sundance Institute and has served as a creative advisor for the directors lab there for the last 16 years. Currently, she teaches acting and directing at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The cast of "A Lesson from Aloes" features Tony Lea as Piet, Kerry Shear as Gladys and Dante Walker as Steve.

Tony Lea is acting with Deep Dish for the first time. A resident director for the theater, he has staged a number of memorable Deep Dish productions, including last year’s The Exonerated, and will direct The Clean House later this season. As an actor, he has been seen locally in such productions as Love, Valour, Compassion for Raleigh Ensemble Players and A Question of Mercy for Burning Coal.

Kerry Shear is making her Triangle debut with this production. A lifetime member of The Actors Studio, Shear studied with Lee Strasberg and taught at the Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles for many years. She has appeared in productions at the Ensemble Studio Theater, the Strasberg Theater Center, and was a founding member of the original Los Angeles Actors Theater. Shear appeared with Wilford Brimley in A. R. Gurney's Love Letters and worked with John Cassavetes on his theatrical piece Knives. She recently appeared in the world premiere of Bill Svanoe's play, The Last Laugh.

Dante Walker last appeared with Deep Dish as Robert Earl Hayes in The Exonerated. He has also performed with a number of companies across the Triangle, including The Open Door Theater and The International Social Studies Project’s GlobalArts Program.

The design team for "A Lesson from Aloes" includes Lisa Tireman (sets), Elizabeth Grimes-Droessler (lights), Miranda Morales (costumes), David Klionsky (sound) and Jon Byers (props). Jeff Meanza is the vocal coach and Karen Blansfield is the production’s dramaturge. The stage manager is Jennifer Bauer.

Deep Dish is located in Chapel Hill's University Mall, on Estes Drive and US 15-501. Thursday performances begin at 7:30 p.m., with Friday and Saturday performances at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. There will also be a special Wednesday show on November 7. Audience discussions will follow Sunday matinee performances on October 21 (featuring a conversation with the production's design team) and 28.

The Deep Dish Book Book Selection for this production is Disgrace, by Nobel Prize-winner J.M. Coetzee. Time Magazine hailed it as a “subtly brilliant commentary on the nature and balance of power in his homeland... by a writer at the top of his form.” A discussion of the book, free and open to the public, will be held at 6:30 p.m., prior to the performance on Thursday, November 8.

For reservations and information, call (919) 968-1515 or visit the company's box office in University Mall Wednesday - Saturday from 3-6 p.m. Tickets for all performances are $16, $14 for seniors, and $12 for students. Thursday, October 25 is "Cheap Dish Night," when all tickets will be $7; no advance reservations will be taken for that performance.

Tickets for upcoming productions of State of the Union (Feb. 14 - March 8, 2008) and The Clean House (May 1- 24, 2008), are also available for advance purchase.

For more information, call (919) 968-1515.