(NEW YORK, NY) -- Since the fall of 2022, Literature to Life (LTL), a performance-based literacy program that presents professionally staged adaptations of American literary classics, has presented over 20 performances in five states, including at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. and — thanks to a partnership with the Freedom Reads Foundation — the Otisville Correctional Facility. LTL presents verbatim adaptations of classic and contemporary novels featuring a solo actor.
The 2022-2023 performance season includes Black Boy (Richard Wright), County of Kings (Lemon Andersen), Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury), If Beale Street Could Talk (James Baldwin), The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Díaz), The Giver (Lois Lowry), and The Latehomecomer (Kao Kalia Yang).
This February through May, LTL will bring the company’s award-winning titles to schools, performing arts centers, and correctional facilities throughout the New York City boroughs, New York state, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
All LTL productions include an educational component, from a post-show open discussion with the audience to a suite of in-classroom workshops, facilitated by an LTL Teaching Artist. LTL productions are available in live, virtual, and pre-recorded formats to best suit the needs of the presenter’s audience.
Literature to Life’s production of Kao Kalia Yang’s The Latehomecomer, a memoir about Yang’s life as a young Hmong girl immigrating to America with her family, was adapted during the pandemic shutdown. It had only been presented virtually until November 2022, when the production finally received its in-person premiere at UAlbany. The Latehomecomer continues its Minnesota tour into February to The Ordway in St. Paul, MN, with performances February 9 and February 22. St. Paul is the hometown of The Latehomecomer actor Gaosong Heu and where Kao Kalia Yang first settles with her family in the book, so this in-person performance holds a special significance in the history of this LTL production.
The Latehomcomer will then tour to University of Northern Iowa on February 22 and the Heyde Center for the Arts in Chippewa Falls, WI on February 23. On March 15, the production will return to Minnesota at the College of St. Benedict. In May, The Latehomecomer will come to NYC with a workshop at the Voelker Orth Museum in Flushing, Queens on May 4 followed by a performance at the Kupferberg Center at Queens College on May 5.
LTL’s production of Richard Wright’s Black Boy will tour to Harvest Collegiate High School in Manhattan on February 15 and the Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford, MA on March 13. In late 2022, Black Boy was the first title Literature to Life presented in a correctional facility with support from Freedom Reads. Founded by Reginald Dwayne Betts, Freedom Reads supports the efforts of people in prison to imagine new possibilities for their lives through access to books and literacy programs. On April 19 at Taconic Correctional Facility, If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin will be the second LTL performance for people in prison.
LTL partners annually with The Whiting in Flint, MI to bring programs to area schools. In late 2022 and early 2023, Lemon Andersen’s County of Kings and James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk were offered in virtual formats. March 9 through 10, Literature to Life will return to The Whiting to present Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. This spring, Oscar Wao will also go to Fordham High School in New York City and, on March 29, to William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ.
Other spring LTL New Jersey performances include: Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 at County Prep High School in Jersey City and Lois Lowry’s The Giver at the Algonquin Theatre on May 18. The Giver will also be presented by UPenn Arts in Philadelphia, PA from May 22 through 23.
“We are thrilled to have such a robust and meaningful performance season ahead of us,” says Artistic Director Elise Thoron. “It was so gratifying to see The Latehomecomer have its long-anticipated in-person premiere, and now I’m so glad it’s reaching so many live audiences. The performances we are doing in prisons through the brilliant Dwayne Betts’ Freedom Reads project are so impactful. And all the performances we are doing in such a huge range of places for a huge range of folks…It’s exactly what we aim to be doing. Here’s to even more!”
“We kicked off this season with the National Book Festival in D.C.,” says Executive Director Lisa Beth Vettoso. “It turns out that high-profile event was emblematic of the level of growth Literature to Life would achieve this season. That said, we are hungry for more! Our titles are fantastic, timely, and are by authors of diverse ages and backgrounds. Our company is made up of thoughtful actors and teaching artists who reflect the diversity of the titles we perform. We are ready to come to YOU–your library, classroom, conference room, stage—wherever you are on the map.”
LTL is continually accepting new bookings, with programs adaptable to a wide range of venues and audiences. Email Executive Director Lisa Beth Vettoso at lisa.v@literaturetolife.org to learn more about how to bring an LTL production to your school, theater, facility, or business.
Literature to Life is a performance-based literacy program that presents professionally staged verbatim adaptations of American literary classics. Its mission is to perform great books to inspire young people to read and become authors of their own lives. Founded as the educational program of the American Place Theatre more than three decades ago, LTL carries forward the legacy of founder Wynn Handman, who championed American writers of diverse backgrounds as “voices worth hearing.” Now under the leadership of LTL co-founding Artistic Director Elise Thoron and Executive Director Lisa Beth Vettoso, this mighty collective of artists and educators brings the voices of diverse authors to thousands of students and audiences nationwide, giving them the tools to become the empowered “voices worth hearing” of our future.