ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 11, 1996 TAG: 9607110089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.VA.
A new play about a Virginia reporter who died while investigating government corruption will be featured at the Contemporary American Theater Festival this week.
The festival started its sixth season at Shepherd College on Wednesday with the premiere of ``Bad Girls,'' a play by Joyce Carol Oates about a single mother raising three daughters.
Thursday will be the opening of ``Octopus,'' a Jon Klein play about the final days of Danny Casolaro, a free-lance reporter whose body was found five years ago in a bathtub in a Martinsburg hotel room.
The play delves into questions surrounding Casolaro's death while he investigated scandals that included the alleged theft of software by the Justice Department and the money-laundering activities of BCCI, a foreign bank.
Casolaro, of Fairfax, Va., told his brother before he left to meet a source in Martinsburg that he had received death threats.
His death was ruled a suicide, but the handling of the investigation was criticized by family members. The body was embalmed before autopsy and his investigative papers were never recovered.
Besides the premieres, the festival also will feature ``The Nina Variations'' by Steven Dietz and two one-act plays. |- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 38 linesby CNB