The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC) will present a reading of THE VISITOR by Carol K. Mack and directed by NEC's Artistic Director Charles Weldon Tuesday, October 19th at 7:30 pm at the June Havoc Theatre at the Abingdon Theatre Complex (312 West 36th St., between 8th & 9th Ave.).
THE VISITOR is based on a true story that took place in 1895 in New York City when Theodore Roosevelt was Police Commissioner. Roosevelt received word that Herr Alwardt, a viciously anti-Semitic member of the German Reichstag, was on his way over to "preach against the Jews" in New York and that Herr Alwardt demanded protection. Roosevelt assigned 40 Jewish policemen to be his 'bodyguards.' The play is about these courageous men (one of whom was the playwright's great grandfather) and what they experienced to uphold the Constitutional right to free speech. THE VISITOR received a grant from the Foundation for Jewish Culture.
The cast includes Chris Johnson, Scott Kerns, Aidan Redmond, Jonathan Slaff, Curt Williams and Tom Zingarelli.
The reading is free. For tickets, E-mail RSVPreadings@gmail.com.
Carol K. Mack conceived the project SEVEN and invited six award-winning women playwrights to join her. The seven playwrights: Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith and Susan Yankowitz each interviewed seven women leaders from all corners of the globe, wrote monologues and then wove the remarkable stories together in an inspiring documentary theatre piece which premiered at the 92nd Street Y in New York City on January 21, 2008, Martin Luther King Day. It has since toured the globe. Visit www.vitalvoices.org . Mack's plays include: TERRITORIAL RITES, POSTCARDS, A SAFE PLACE, THE ACCIDENT & WITHOUT A TRACE which have premiered respectively at: The Women's Project, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Berkshire Theatre Festival in Association with The Kennedy Center, A.R.T., and the Tron, Glasgow. She is the recipient of the Stanley Award, Beverly Hills Theatre Guild-Julie Harris Playwright Award, & residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Center at Bellagio. Her work appears in THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT PLAYS of 1986, 1990, 1994, and 2008, and many other publications. For more information, visit http://www.carolkmack.com.
Since its founding in 1967, the Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. has produced more than two hundred new plays and provided a theatrical home for more than four thousand cast and crew members. Among its ranks have been some of the best black actors in television and film, including Louis Gossett Jr., Sherman Hemsley, and Phylicia Rashad. The NEC is respected worldwide for its commitment to excellence, and has won dozens of honors and awards. While these accolades point to the larger success of the NEC, it has created something far greater. It has been a constant source and sustenance for black actors, directors, and writers as they have worked to break down walls of racial prejudice. The NEC has reached out to many playwrights of various ethnicities and cultures. THE VISITOR, directed by the NEC Artistic Director Charles Weldon, brings together two communities by the play's subject matter of bigotry, racism and its concern with basic constitutional rights. For more information, visit http://www.negroensemblecompany.org/.
