Revolution’s Edge tickets are on sale now!

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Great news! Tickets for our newest play, Revolution’s Edge, are now on sale from Old North Illuminated/Old North Church. We open June 15, but it’s never too early to get your seats.

(We love the great preview video that Old North put together!)

The play takes place on April 18, 1775–the day before the Battle of Lexington & Concord–and centers on the the interaction between Loyalist Minister Mather Byles Jr., Cato who is enslaved by Byles, and ship’s captain John Pulling, who is a vestryman of the Anglican Christ Church as well as an ardent Patriot. Byles has just resigned his position, and Pulling is about to hang signal lanterns in the steeple that night to alert the rebels. On the brink of war, these three fathers search for information to help navigate the treacherous times unfolding around them.

The performance is approximately 45 minutes. Seating for the play starts at 5pm, and the show begins promptly at 5:20pm. Ticket holders are welcome to come before 5pm to enjoy a complimentary self-guided tour of Old North Church’s sanctuary.

$20 – Adults
$10 – Under 18 years old 
Recommended for ages 12 and up 

GET TICKETS

Revolution’s Edge coming to Old North Church in June

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We have a big project coming to Boston very soon! Patrick has written a new play, Revolution’s Edge, commissioned by Old North Illuminated, to be staged at the historic Old North Church.

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Plays in Place at NEMA, November 3-4

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Jazzmin and Patrick will be manning a booth at the annual NEMA (New England Museum Association) conference in Springfield, November 3 and 4. If you’re attending, please be sure to stop by and say Hello.

Patrick has been to the NEMA conference multiple times as a speaker, but this is our first time getting a booth. We’re very much looking forward to sharing photos of our past production and talking to people about our projects, past and present.

(We will have chocolate. And copies of The Mount Auburn Plays book.)

So Many Updates

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Final Weekend for I Am This Place

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Busy Week Ahead

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There’s lots happening with Plays in Place this week. On Friday, we start rehearsals for Moonlight Abolitionists at Mount Auburn Cemetery, and we open for performances coming up on September 20, 21, and 22, under the full moon. We’re desperately hoping for clear weather, but we’re fortunate to have a great indoor backup in Bigelow Chapel. All three shows sold out very fast–they went on sale on a Friday and by the following Monday all the tickets were gone.

We also start rehearsals this Sunday for I Am This Place, a new one-act play we commissioned (in partnership with Revolutionary Spaces) from Miranda ADEkoje, directed by Pascale Florestal, about Crispus Attucks and his African and Native American ancestors. This play will be staged at Old South Meeting House in October.

We also have a new office, where Patrick is desperately trying to get unpacked before heading back to Boston for the shows and rehearsals. We’re in a fantastic studio/office space in an old carriage barn built in the 1870s in Florence, MA, right near the site of a 19th century interracial, utopian community. (Photos to come.)

Moonlight Abolitionists tickets are on sale!

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Plays in Place will return to live performances next month with Moonlight Abolitionists at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA, September 20-22, 8pm. This concert reading is a swirling conversation between six abolitionists buried at the Cemetery, designed to be performed outdoors, under the full moon. It’s an experience not to be missed.

Tickets have just gone on sale and seating is limited so they will go fast. You can get tickets here. Megan Sandberg-Zakian is directing a cast that includes Steven Barkhimer, Rachel Cognata, Amanda Collins, Alexander Platt, Damon Singletary, and Lewis D. Wheeler.

We’ve had such great experiences at Mount Auburn, so it’s a thrill to return with this play. Being in the Cemetery at night, under the full moon is a unique experience and the play makes the most of the power of the place and the history of these six people who fought so hard for freedom.

Imagining The Age of Phillis–8 new short films

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We’ve just released our latest project—Imagining the Age of Phillis—and this one you can easily experience from the comfort of your own home. In partnership with Revolutionary Spaces, we’ve just produced eight short films based on poems and imagined letters from the astonishing and powerful book, The Age of Phillis, by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, directed by Boston filmmaker John ADEkoje.

You can view the films at the Revolutionary Spaces web site.

We filmed all the pieces at the Old State House and at Old South Meeting House in Boston, with a very talented cast of Cheryl Singleton, Tailinh Ogoyo, Brandon Green, Marc Pierre, Regine Vital, and Sabrina Victor.

We hope you’ll check out this exploration of history, race, language, and Phillis Wheatley Peters. The book is amazing, and John’s short films have risen to match it. (If you do enjoy them, please help spread the word via social media or any other venue—we’re eager for more people to see these pieces.)

Plays in Place will return to live performances this fall. Be sure to save the dates in your calendar to attend Moonlight Abolitionists at Mount Auburn Cemetery, September 20-22. This concert reading is a swirling conversation between six abolitionists buried at the Cemetery, designed to be performed outdoors, under the full moon. (We’ll let you know when tickets are available. Seating is limited and they will go very fast.) And also save room for I Am This Place, a new one-act play by Miranda ADEkoje about Crispus Attucks and his ancestors that we’ll produce at Old South Meeting House for 10 performances, October 15-24.

Thanks as always for your support of our company and our partners!

 

Plays in Place Pandemic Update

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Plays in Place operates at the intersection of theatre and the museum worlds, and both sectors have been hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.  For 2020, we had planned for a revival of Blood on the Snow at the Old State House, a production of Patrick’s new play for the Roosevelt Cottage on Campobello Island, 180 performances of Miranda ADEkoje’s new play about Crispus Attucks at Old South Meeting House in Boston, and a concert reading/production of Moonlight Abolitionists at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Alas, none of those events were able to happen, much to our disappointment. It was going to be a busy year, with the potential of reaching many thousands of audience members with some terrific theatre (and employing many artists).

On the plus side, some of those projects were merely postponed. We still have high hopes for a production of Beloved Island: Windows on Campobello next summer in New Brunswick, Canada. I Am This Place, Miranda’s play, will get a workshop and ultimately a production, once we’re able to gather audiences at Old South again (middle of 2021?). We have a tentative date of late April for Moonlight Abolitionists, though that might shift, depending on the pandemic. And The Mount Auburn Plays book is now published in a beautiful new edition from Mount Auburn Cemetery.

In addition, Patrick has been commissioned by Revolutionary Spaces to write a new full-length play for Old South Meeting House, and we’ve signed a contract with the National Park Service to begin research and development for three new site-specific plays in Boston about Women’s Suffrage and the intersection with abolition and race (the overall project is titled Suffrage in Black and White). History at Play has licensed Cato & Dolly and will begin touring and streaming a production of the show sometime in 2021, and we’re very excited that audiences will continue to learn the stories of these two great characters.

And we’re always in conversation about other projects, so you never know what else might be coming down the line.  (Sign up for our mailing list, so you don’t miss anything.)