PATCHOGUE, NY – APRIL 14, 2008 – The Clare Rose Playhouse, a community theatre located on the Long Island campus of St. Joseph’s College, will continue its 2007-08 season with The Gay Deceiver, a zany comedy written by John Patrick, playwright and Hollywood scriptwriter. The show will run from April 25 to May 10, 2008.

Humorous and light-hearted, The Gay Deceiver intertwines family, politics and sexuality for a lively story about quirky relatives with varying beliefs. The main character, David, returns home with his cross-dressing partner to disclose his homosexual lifestyle to his conservative parents, but unexpectedly gets drawn into his father’s mayoral campaign. All the while, his father is unaware that his supposed girlfriend is actually his boyfriend. Hilarity ensues and the story comes to a close with father and son accepting each other’s differences.

The late John Patrick wrote dozens of screenplays for production from 1935 to 1991. He also wrote over a thousand television scripts for NBC and his 1953 stage adaptation of The Teahouse of the August Moon won him the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for drama.

Individual tickets for this show are priced at $14; $12 for students and seniors. Show times are 8:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 3:00 p.m. on Sundays. 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, Suffolk, Long Island, the College offers degrees in over 22 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.