Suffrage in Black & White project intro and conversation

 

 

 

 

 

For the past year, we’ve been working with the National Park Service to create a series of three new site-specific plays. This week, we’ll gather all three of the playwrights for a conversation about our research and the sites. We’re still at the earliest phases of this project, but it’s a fun chance to look at the sprouts of what we hope will become a major production.

Here’s the official announcement:

Rooted in the abolitionist movement, the women’s suffrage movement in Boston provides a powerful lens to examine the intersection of race, gender, and politics in the city and beyond. In an innovative multi-phase project, the National Park Service and Revolutionary Spaces are working with Plays in Place to bring this history to life by creating three original site-specific plays.

Playwrights Patrick Gabridge, Miranda ADEkoje, and Ginger Lazarus have researched and conceptualized plays that will activate Boston’s historic spaces and dive into the connections between the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements in the city. Historical moments featured include: Angelina Grimke’s groundbreaking 1838 speech on abolition and women’s rights at the Massachusetts State House; Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin’s launching of the Black clubwomen’s movement in Beacon Hill in 1895; and the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association’s Faneuil Hall rally after the crushing defeat of the 1915 women’s suffrage state referendum.

Join the playwrights in conversation as they outline their initial concepts for these plays and invite you to offer your thoughts and feedback!

Ginger and Miranda are brilliant writers and good friends, and I’m grateful to be on this journey with them. Please join us to hear what we’ve been up to.

Here’s the link to register for this free webinar.

Thanks for your support! Stay tuned to some exciting projects coming up in June and this fall from Plays in Place and Revolutionary Spaces.

Sneak Peak at Mt. Auburn plays this month

As part of Patrick’s residency at Mount Auburn Cemetery, he is creating two series of site-specific short plays to be produced by Plays in Place on the Cemetery grounds in 2019. To help develop the plays, and to offer audiences a sneak peak into the work-in-progress, there will be some public staged readings coming up in September. All the readings will be directed by Courtney O’Connor.

On Saturday, September 8, at 1pm, there will be readings from three plays in the America Plays series: A Man of Vision, Consecration, and Variations on an Unissued ApologyPurchase tickets here.  The cast will include Dale Place, Elle Borders, Matt C. Ryan, Karen MacDonald, and Margaret Ann Brady.

On Tuesday, September 25, at 5:30pmpm, there will be readings from three plays in the Nature Plays series: Cerulean Blue, Hot Love in the Moonlight, and one other play.  Purchase tickets here.

Patrick will also be leading a two-day workshop on site-specific playwriting, on September 15 and 22.  Patrick will talk about his own experiences creating site-specific work for Mount Auburn, for wild spaces in Colorado, as well as for the Old State House in Boston (Blood on the Snow) and lead a discussion on the craft and discipline of writing for specific spaces. Then the group will tour Mount Auburn to discover spots for which they will write their own short plays. On the second Saturday, a small ensemble of professional actors will read the participant’s new short plays in the spaces at Mount Auburn for which they have been created. Patrick will lead additional discussion around the new drafts and potential revisions, and lead reflections of the group on the joys and challenges of writing plays for specific places. Tickets and more info here.