PATCHOGUE, NY – OCTOBER 13, 2006 – The Clare Rose Playhouse, a community theatre located on the Patchogue campus of St. Joseph’s College, will continue its 2006-07 season with "Lost in Yonkers", a semi-autobiographical Pulitzer Prize-winning play written by Neil Simon. The show will run from November 3-19, 2006.

Set during WWII, "Lost in Yonkers" chronicles the story of an eccentric New York family in the summer of 1942. Faced with a crisis and fleeing from a loan shark, a panicked father leaves his sons, Jay and Arty, in the care of their heavy-handed immigrant grandmother who runs a candy store in Yonkers. The grandmother’s tyrannical ways are evident in the manner which she treats her grandchildren and her middle-aged, mentally challenged daughter, Bella, who constantly seeks love and independence from her oppressive mother. The boys and Bella are forced to live beneath this stern and austere roof until Uncle Louie, a small-time, tough-talking gangster who retreats home and goes into hiding, arrives. While he’s back, Uncle Louie helps both the boys and Bella understand, love and accept their grandmother despite her adversities and the hardship of life in Yonkers.

General admission tickets cost $14 each with a reduced rate of $12 for students and senior citizens. Group rates, season subscriptions and dinner and lunch packages also are available. Shows begin at 8:00 PM Friday and Saturday evenings with Sunday matinees starting at 3:00 PM. For reservations or further information, please call the box office at (631) 654-0199.

The Clare Rose Playhouse, which serves as a major teaching facility for the College’s theatre courses, is accessible via the South Service Road of Sunrise Highway, just east of Exit 52 (Waverly Avenue) in Patchogue, on the northeast corner of the campus of St. Joseph’s College. A former cottage converted in 1985 through the generosity and guidance of the man for whom it is named, the Playhouse serves as a major teaching facility for the college’s theater courses and is a training ground for young actors. The Playhouse is the site of community theater productions of musicals, dramas, comedies, cabaret acts, musical performances, dance troupes and comedians.

About St. Joseph's College

St. Joseph’s College has been dedicated to providing a diverse population of students in the New York metropolitan area with an affordable education rooted in the liberal arts tradition since 1916. Independent and coeducational, the College provides a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, aiming to prepare each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual and spiritual values, social responsibility, and service. With campuses located in the Clinton Hill area of Brooklyn and in Patchogue, Long Island, the College offers degrees in numerous majors, special course offerings and certificates, affiliated and pre-professional programs through its School of Arts and Sciences and its School of Professional and Graduate Studies.