OSCAR-NOMINATED DRAMA ALUMNUS PETER HEDGES TO VISIT NCSA
Will Speak To Students and Screen His Latest Effort, PIECES OF APRIL

WINSTON-SALEM – Peter Hedges, who garnered an Oscar nomination earlier this year for ABOUT A BOY, is bringing his newest film, PIECES OF APRIL, to his alma mater this week.

Hedges, who studied acting in the School of Drama at the North Carolina School of the Arts, will be a guest artist at NCSA on Friday, Oct. 24. He will speak to drama and film students from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Proscenium Thrust Theatre of Performance Place. The discussion will be moderated by School of Drama Dean Gerald Freedman and School of Filmmaking Dean Dale Pollock.

At 7 p.m., PIECES OF APRIL will be screened for students in the Main Theatre of the ACE Exhibition Complex in the School of Filmmaking. Hedges will speak briefly prior to the film and will conduct a question-and-answer session after the film.

Written and directed by Hedges, PIECES OF APRIL has been hailed as “an intelligent and touching farce” by The New York Times and “wickedly funny” by Newsweek. The film was a contender in the Sundance Film Festival’s Dramatic Competition and was later sold to United Artists. It stars Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Derek Luke, Sean Hayes and Oliver Platt, and opens in theatres nationwide today.

Hedges received his first Academy Award nomination (Best Adapted Screenplay) earlier this year for ABOUT A BOY, a screenplay he co-wrote with Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz. Directed by the Weitz brothers, ABOUT A BOY stars Hugh Grant.

Hedges was also nominated this summer for two HUMANITAS Prizes (one for ABOUT A BOY and the other for PIECES OF APRIL).

Hedges, who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from NCSA in 1984, is well-known as a novelist, playwright and screenwriter. He wrote the book and screenplay for WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE (for which Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for an Academy Award), and the screenplay for A MAP OF THE WORLD. His most recent novel is “An Ocean in Iowa,” published by Hyperion Press. His plays include “Baby Anger” (Playwrights Horizons), “Good As New” (Manhattan Class Company) and “Imagining Brad” (Circle Repertory Theatre), all of which have been published by Dramatists Play Service. A native of Iowa, Hedges now lives in New York with his wife and two children.

For more about Peter Hedges, see Julie Salamon’s profile in the Oct. 12, 2003, edition of The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/12/movies/12SALA.html

MEDIA: You are cordially invited to cover Peter Hedges’ visit to NCSA! Please note that the screening and discussion are for NCSA students and are not open to the public. For more information, contact Marla Carpenter at 336-770-3337 in the public relations office at NCSA.

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