by Clare Booth Luce

The Broadway comedy comes to the CTC MainStage – jungle red nails and all! Gold-diggers, schemers, gossips, and social climbers -- these are the women who populate THE WOMEN. George Cukor's 1939 film version of the play featured Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell in a hilarious catfight that made "jungle red" nail polish synonymous with sharp-clawed back stabbing. This brilliant comedy has assumed the status of a modern classic. The playwright carries us through a number of varied scenes and shows us not only a somewhat unflattering picture of womanhood, but digging under the surface, reveals a human understanding for, and sympathy with, some of its outstanding figures. The plot involves the efforts of a group of women to play their respective roles in an artificial society that consists of vain show, comedy, tragedy, hope and disappointment.

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The Chattanooga Theatre Centre will donate a portion of opening weekend ticket sales for "The Women" to benefit local disaster relief efforts, according to producing director George Quick.

Ten percent of proceeds from ticket sales for the Friday and Saturday night (May 13 and 14, 2011) performances of the Clare Boothe Luce comedy, "The Women", will be given to the local Red Cross.

"We are keenly aware of the loss and suffering that has been endured in our area. So many members of our larger theatre family here and in the entire, multi-state area have been devastated. That’s why we wanted to show our support through this donation to our local Red Cross," said Quick.

Claudia Moore, chief development officer of the Greater Chattanooga Area American Red Cross said: "We are so grateful for the Theatre Centre’s support of our relief effort. These donations will help offset the cost of one of the largest Red Cross responses ever launched in our region. Our volunteers and supporters are what make it possible for us to help those in need."

Brother Ron Fender, director of the play, thinks this comedy arrives on stage at the Theatre Centre at a good time. In his Director’s Notes for the playbill for "The Women", he writes: "We need some laughter right now. We have suffered tornadoes, power outages, destruction and death. The news seems to repeat itself, and it’s so darned tragic we all seem shell-shocked.

"…I hope you will simply sit back and allow yourself to laugh at human silliness… Lighten your heart. Have some fun. Split a gut. Slap your knee…Let’s go back to a time when we laughed out loud and when it was perfectly okay to have a grand, good time."

Performances this weekend of The Women by Clare Boothe Luce are Friday and Saturday, May 13 and 14, at 8:00 p.m. For tickets and more information, call 423-267-8534 or online