`LILIES OF THE FIELD' AT PALMDALE PLAYHOUSE HANDYMAN INDUCED TO HELP NUNS BUILD NEW CHAPEL IN PLAY.

Byline: Daily News

PALMDALE - ``The Lilies of the Field,'' which as a movie won Sidney Poitier an Oscar for Best Actor in 1963, is now on the Palmdale Playhouse stage.

Starring Antelope Valley High School choir director John Crocker Jr. as ex-soldier Homer Smith, who encounters a group of German nuns desperate for help building a chapel, the play opened this weekend locally.

``On many levels in the play, people struggle to retain their inherent goodness while they fight against what their worldly values tell them to do,'' said director Catherine Felty, the Playhouse assistant stage production manager. ``Other characters find themselves fighting their natural instincts to `do the right thing' while still trying to get along in the business world. The message of the play is to have faith, and again, on different levels, everyone learns that they had faith all along. They just had to find it.''

Showtime is 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 24 at the Palmdale Playhouse, 38334 10th St. E. Tickets are $14 for adults and $10 for seniors, students, military and children. For more information, call [phone].

Felty said ``Lilies'' conveys a strong message of values that is often missing in modern American society and she has tried to promote that message. She chose to make the sisters in the play a cloistered monastery of Poor Clares, a branch of Franciscans known for their vows of poverty. In the play, Homer often finds his values at odds with those of the sisters.

Besides Crocker, who is also the Playhouse choral director, the play features Playhouse cultural arts/theatre manager Dea McAllister as Mother Maria Marthe and box office manager Tara McVeigh as Sister Francis.

The cast also includes Dean Berg as Orville Livingston, Ellen Gurewitz as Sue Ellen, Karen Gruca as Sister Elizabeth, Ginette Riopel as Sister Gertrude, Eve Steadman as Sister Clare, Ed Vega as Father Gomez, Catherine Wiener as Sister Albertine, and Joan Williamson as Sister Agnes.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) ``Lilies'' stars from left, Eve Steadman, Karen Gruca, Ginette Riopel, Tara McVeigh, Joan Williamson, Catherine Wiener, Dea McAllister and John Crocker Jr.

(2) Ed Vega plays Father Gomez in the Palmdale Playhouse production of ``Lilies of the Field,'' which is scheduled to run weekends through Sept. 24.