Three performances only! Each company will present the work once in their home locale with a repertory cast and special guests, co-directed by Iron Age Theatre's Artistic Director John Doyle and Plays & Players' Artistic Director Daniel Student. Iron Age Theatre will open the run on October 21 at 7pm at The Centre Theater in Norristown, South Camden Theatre Company will present the second production on October 27 at 2pm at the Waterfront South Theatre in Camden, New Jersey and the event will conclude with a production and meet and greet at historic Plays & Players Theatre in Philadelphia on November 10 at 8pm.
These performances bring to life the words of the famous and the forgotten from U.S. history through live readings by actors of speeches, letters, essays, poems, and more. Figures like Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Kevin Tillman, Emma Goldman and Fred Hampton are revived in the production. Since 2003, there have been more than 80 VOICES performances in 18 different states and in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2007 by a group of activists, artists and educators, led by historian Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove, who together edited the book Voices of a People's History of the United States, the primary source companion to Zinn's best-selling A People's History of the United States., VOICES is a nonprofit social justice organization using performing arts and educational programs based on primary source materials. By giving public expression to rebels, dissenters, and visionaries from our past—and present—VOICES seeks to educate and inspire a new generation working for social justice. Past performers include Academy Award winners and community organizers, teachers and students, veterans and musicians. Venues range from classrooms and town halls to the Sundance Film Festival and the Kennedy Center.
"VOICES really captures the voices as if they were speaking right to us over the years and all the differences. It calls on us to add our own voices and, quite apart from its value as a learning tool that may be its greatest contribution." stated Paul Buhle of Brown University and Z Magazine.
Tickets for all performances are $25-$30. Tickets for October 21 hosted by Iron Age Theatre can be purchased at www.ironagetheatre.org. Tickets for October 27 can be purchased at www.southcamdentheatre.org or by calling 866-811-4111. Tickets for November 10 can be purchased at www.playsandplayers.org or by calling 800-595-4TIX.
"The work of Howard Zinn allows us to both illuminate our stage with his work and, at the same time, honor our mission in Camden," says South Camden Theatre Company's Producing Artistic Director Joseph M. Paprzycki. "Working together with two like-minded, talented companies like Iron Age Theatre and Plays & Players allows our combined vision to be played out to a larger audience. We are particularly honored to have Msgr. Michael Doyle pastor of Sacred Heart Church read an excerpt from his own testimony as given during the infamous ‘Camden 28' trial; one in which Howard Zinn himself testified."
"Plays & Players has been a gathering place for theater practitioners to practice their craft for over 100 years," says P & P Producing Artistic Director Daniel Student. This is home to a true American history. The theater has long been a place where those who are oppressed find a voice to speak out, and I knew that I had found kindred spirits when I first met with the leaders of Iron Age and South Camden Theatre Company about this project. We all couldn't think of a better place to host the culminating performance of the seminal work."
Each of the production companies will donate 10% of their revenue to a local charity that acts for social justice or human services in their community. Iron Age Theatre will be supporting the work of Laurel House, a home for battered women. Plays and Players will help out Broad Street Ministry who provide services to the homeless and dispossessed in Center City Philadelphia. South Camden Theatre Company will offer support to the Center for Transformation, a nonprofit dedicated to environmental transformation and environmental justice particularly in the Waterfront South neighborhood of Camden, New Jersey.
About South Camden Theatre Company
The South Camden Theatre Company is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to helping revitalize the City of Camden, New Jersey by producing meaningful, professional theater in the City's Waterfront South District as the resident theatre company at Waterfront South Theatre. We are committed to staging performances that entertain, elevate, and inspire audiences, whether our plays are rooted in the reality of injustice, or explore the magic of human potential and show how love can transcend our differences. We are here to serve the community; its adults, children, and we exist to provide hope for the rebirth of our city, while providing a voice and a stage for those who live, work and dream here. South Camden Theatre Company is a proud member of The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, Jersey Cultural Alliance, and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. For more information on South Camden Theatre Company and Waterfront South Theatre, visit www.southcamdentheatre.org.
About Iron Age Theatre
Iron Age Theatre has been part of the Philadelphia theatre scene for over 19 years. Iron Age's 2002 with Baraka's Dutchman, featured on the cover of Theatre Journal. Based at the Center Theatre in Norristown, the company has staged works ranging from the east coast premiere of the hilarious and irreverent Shakesploitation to the Barrymore Nominated Maroons: by Ray Saraceni. The Iron Age production of Howard Zinn's Marx in Soho, first performed at the 2004 Fringe Festival, has gone on to tour the nation for the past eight years in over 200 venues with Bob Weick as Karl Marx. The companies production of Citizen Paine is playing at the 2012 International Thomas Paine Conference in New Rochelle.
About Plays & Players
Plays & Players is Center City Philadelphia's oldest continuously operated theatre, located just off of Rittenhouse Square, and is currently producing its 101st Season. Plays & Players was reborn in 2009 as a professional theater under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Daniel Student. Returning to its roots, Plays & Players seeks to invest in the talents of local emerging theater artists by providing a gathering place for practitioners to contribute to professional productions, expand their artistry through training, and connect and collaborate at the historic Plays & Players Theatre.
The 2012-13 Season is dedicated to The American Presidency. Voices of a People's History will be presented as part of a series of events in An American Presidency: A Theatrical Response, running November 7-18. The season will continue with the Philadelphia Premiere production of Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle winning Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, a high-octane political rock and roll musical, running January 17-February 3. It will culminate with The America Play and Other American Cousins, pairing Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Suzan Lori-Parks' seminal work about an African-American man who looks just like Abraham Lincoln with World Premiere short plays named for the play Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated, running April 4-21.
