The Project: This fall, McCarter will present a reading of new 10-minute plays, commissioned in conjunction with a significant and timely community endeavor: the national public rollout of The Princeton and Slavery Project. Spearheaded by Martha Sandweiss (Princeton History professor and author of Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line), this initiative examines how the history of Princeton University is entwined in the institution of slavery. Years of research, archives, and detailed findings will be made public in the fall of 2017, and McCarter is among a prestigious roster of non-profits that have been asked to play a lead role in this project, along with the Princeton Public Library, and the Princeton University Art Museum. Commissioned writers will craft individual 10-minute plays in response to the poignant research, testimonials and archives. They will have access to historical documents, letters, and artifacts and will meet with Princeton community members and leaders who have/had a personal connection to this history.
Commissioned Artists: Nathan Alan Davis, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Dipika Guha, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Emily Mann, Regina Taylor [full bios below]
Dramaturg: Emilia LaPenta [full bio below]
Public Presentation: There will be two public readings in conjunction with the public rollout of the research on November 18 and 19, 2017. More information about timing and tickets will be available in early fall 2017.
for the November 19 readings.
The commissioning and public readings of The Princeton and Slavery Plays are a part of The Princeton and Slavery Project.
Click here to learn more.
BIOS
Click the name to view the bio underneath
Artists
Carl Cofield | Nathan Alan Davis | Jackie Sibblies Drury | Dipika Guha | Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Kwame Kwei-Armah | Emilia LaPenta | Emily Mann | Regina Taylor
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Princeton Scholar Partners
Teal Arcadi | Daniel Ewert | Michael Glass | Julia Grummitt | Casey N. Hedstrom | Craig B. Hollander
Bryan LaPointe | Daniel J. Linke | Shelby Lohr | Jessica Mack | Rita Isabela Morales
Martha A. Sandweiss | Geneva A. Smith | Joseph L. Yannielli
RELATED EVENTS
PANEL DISCUSSION
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Please join us after the Sunday November 19 – 1pm performance for an engaging panel discussion featuring playwrights and The Princeton and Slavery Project researchers and archivists.
Princeton and Slavery Project & the Community: The Princeton and Slavery Plays—A Post-Show Community Conversation with Not in Our Town Princeton
Monday, November 20, 2017
Princeton Public Library
Community Room
7 – 8:30pm
Join members of the greater Princeton community and facilitators from Not in Our Town Princeton the day after the public performance of The Princeton and Slavery Plays for an inclusive and interactive conversation. This forum, similar in style and form to Not in Our Town’s monthly “Continuing Conversations,” is an opportunity to debrief on the personal audience experience of the plays, and to dig into the themes and issues underpinning the research and findings of The Princeton and Slavery Project, which continue to resonate in and affect the local community of the present.
This event will take place from 7 to 8:30pm in the Princeton Public Library’s Community Room (on the first floor adjacent to the Library Cafe). The Princeton Public Library is located at 65 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, NJ.
No RSVP or ticket is required to participate in the conversation; it is free and open to the public.
This is a Not in Our Town Princeton, Princeton Public Library, and McCarter Theatre Center joint community partnership event.
This program is made possible in part by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, recommendations, or conclusions expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
McCarter’s Princeton and Slavery Commission Program is made possible by generous support from Mathematica Policy Research, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, and the Princeton Histories Fund..
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