Date: Feb 20, 2009

Hofstra Entertainment Presents "Lady Bird, Pat and Betty: Tea for Three"

Portraits of Three Formidable First Ladies,Starring Emmy Award-Winning Actress Elaine Bromka

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY … Hofstra Entertainment presents Lady Bird, Pat and Betty: Tea for Three, a witty and intimate re-imagining of three women who found themselves celebrities. The play, written by Eric H. Weinberger and Elaine Bromka and starring the Emmy Award-winning Ms. Bromka, is a behind-the-scenes look at Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, and Betty Ford, revealing the personal cost of what Mrs. Nixon called the “hardest unpaid job in the world.”

The performance takes place Sunday, March 8, 2009, at 2 p.m. at Monroe Lecture Center Theater, California Avenue, South Campus. For tickets and more information call the Hofstra Box Office at (516) 463-6644, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Tickets are $21, $18 senior citizen (over 65) or matriculated non-Hofstra student ID, $10 children under 12. Members of the Hofstra community receive one free ticket upon presentation of a current HofstraCard.

Touring the country, Tea for Three has been critically acclaimed for its blend of humor and passion, cited as “marvelous, poignant” (The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.) and “a fascinating evening, laced with insight, emotion and humor… brilliant acting” (The Record-Review, in Westchester County.)

Ms. Bromka has 30 years’ experience in film, television, Broadway, and off-Broadway. She appeared as the mom in Uncle Buck with John Candy, as Stella on Days of our Lives, and on E.R., The Sopranos, and Law and Order.

The inspiration for Tea for Three came about when Ms. Bromka starred opposite Rich Little in The Presidents, which she performed across the country and on PBS.  Called upon to impersonate eight of the most recent first ladies, she ended up spending months poring over videotapes of the women. Studying nuances of their body language and speech patterns to explore psychologically why they moved and spoke as they did, she became more and more drawn in by their personalities. 

“These were women of intelligence and grit who suddenly found themselves in a fishbowl,” Ms. Bromka observed. “I realized I wanted to tell the story from their point of view.

“And I wanted to explode myths. Pat was called ‘Plastic Pat’ in the press, for example, because she was always smiling. Look more closely at her eyes, though. There’s nothing plastic about her. You see the eyes of a private, watchful survivor.”

Ms. Bromka’s collaborator, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award nominee Weinberger, is the author of several off-Broadway plays, including Wanda’s World  and Class Mothers ’68.  He and Bromka zeroed in on the three women, linking their stories by revealing each one at the threshold moment of the end of her time in the White House.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from more than 145 undergraduate and more than 160 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business; engineering; communication; education, health and human services;  and honors studies, as well as a School of Law. With a student-faculty ratio of 14-to-1, our professors teach small classes averaging 22 students that emphasize interaction, critical thinking and analysis. Hofstra offers a faculty whose highest priority is teaching excellence. The University also provides excellent facilities with state-of-the-art technology, extensive library resources and internship programs that match students’ interests and abilities with appropriate companies and organizations.  The Hofstra community is driven, dynamic and energetic, helping students find and focus their strengths to prepare them for a successful future.

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