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Screen writer to speak at local play Staff reports Prize-winning screen writer Jean Rouverol Butler will attend Oregon Stage Works presentation of "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been," 8 p. m. Monday evening, July 2lst in Carpenter Hall. Following the performance, Butler will speak briefly of her experiences and lead a discussion of the effect of the House Unamerican Activities Committee and its infamous blacklist. Butler first came to Southern California as an actress in the 1930's, and appeared as an ingenue in movies produced by Universal, Paramount and RKO. She was active in radio during the 40s, and became a film writer after her marriage to Hugo Butler, with whom she collaborated on many projects. "So Young So Bad," "Face in the Rain" and "The Legend of Lylah Clare," are listed among her credits. In 195l, while working on a romantic comedy for Robert Cummings, the Butlers received word that they were about to receive subpoenas to appear before the HUAC. Rather than face humiliation, intimidation and pressure to betray friends, the Butlers decided to put themselves beyond the reach of the committee. With their four children, they fled to Mexico, where they remained for a number of years. During this time Hugo Butler worked closely with the noted director, Luis Bunuel, himself a political refugee from Franco's Spain. The Butlers have only recently had their writing credit restored on films produced in this period. They include "The Miracle," "The First Time" and "Autumn Leaves." She has also written for magazines, young adult biographies and gothic romances. In the 1970s, she began a new career as a writer of daytime dramas, and for the next decade and a half was on the staff of such series as "Search for Tomorrow," "Guiding Light" and "As the World Turns." She has written a number of non-fiction books, most recently "Refugees from Hollywood," which recounts her family's experience with the HUAC and their subsequent life in Mexico. "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been," written by Eric Bentley, is drawn from transcripts of the House Unamerican Activities Committee's infamous investigation of the motion picture industry. Bentley was for many years a professor of drama at Columbia University. While he has written a number of plays, he is better known as the champion and translator of the works of Bertholdt Brecht.To many historians, the blacklist which resulted from HUAC's witch hunt, helped to create McCarthyism and marked the low point of freedom of speech in the last half of the 20th Century. "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been" dramatizes in the actual words of both interrogators and witnesses in what has been described as one of the most damaging assaults on personal liberties in United States history. Among the well-known actors summoned to testify were John Garfield, Larry Parks, Adolph Menjou and Zero Mostel, as well as writers and directors like Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., Lillian Hellman and Dalton Trumbo. Southern Oregon University graduate Mark Mezadourian returns to the Rogue Valley to act as director. Mezadourian also studied at Actors' Studio and the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. He worked for several years on the production staff of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and has been directing for a number of Northern California acting companies as well as Ashland's Oregon Cabaret Theatre. Mezadourian reported that he has recruited as cast members Oregon Shakespeare Festival actors, Aldo Billingsley, Richard Elmore, Doug Rowe and Brad Whitmore, as well as Lue Douthit, Doug Langworthy. Bill Souers, Richard Moeschl, Dave Marston, Jim Bowen, Peter Foster, Andy Peterson and Mel Shaffer. Co-producer Margaret Brian, a local playwright, knew and counted among her friends and family many of the people called to testify and later blacklisted. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -