Poet Betty Lies Lectures on
Princeton Festival’s
“Midsummer Magic”

Betty Lies

Poet Betty Lies will give the first lecture on “Midsummer Magic”—the theme of The Princeton Festival’s upcoming season—at the Princeton (N.J.) Public Library on March 12 at 7:30 pm. She will speak on “Midsummer Magic: Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets”: love confusion in Benjamin Britten’s opera “ A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the popular musical “The Fantasticks”, both featured in the Festival’s new season.

Betty Lies is a well-known poet living in Montgomery Township, New Jersey. A long-time teacher at the middle school, high school, and college levels, she now devotes her time to writing and teaching poetry. She is poet the schools for the New Jersey Council on the Arts, which has named her a Distinguished Teaching Artist, and a Geraldine R. Dodge Poet. Published in many journals, Ms. Lies is the author of two volumes of poetry, the second forthcoming in September.

The Princeton Festival’s fifth season will run from Saturday, June 13 through Sunday, June 28. In all, five lectures will explore the theme of “Midsummer Magic”:

• Ms. Lies’ Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets”
• “Midsummer Magic: Illustrating Fantasy and Imagination” by Marianne Gray on May 28
• A musical preview of the 2009 season with the Festival’s artistic director, Richard Tan Yuk, and the stage director of the Britten opera, Stephen LaCosse, with musical artists on June 4
• “The Magical Music in A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with Timothy Urban on June 16
• A showing of Woody Allen’s film “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy” on June 23

The venue for all will be the Princeton Public Library. In addition, the lectures by Ms. Gray and Mr. Urban will also be heard at the public libraries in Rocky Hill and Lambertville on May 21 and June 6.