Students Perform Professional Production Of 'ANTIGONE' 12/10

Antigone in Harlem is an innovative and rigorous program in which students learn the history, culture and politics of ancient Greece. The vitally important art form of Greek Tragedy is not taught in most NYC schools and Sophocles' Antigone is an excellent text to engage and challenge young minds.

Aquila Theatre and Frederick Douglass Academy (2581 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard) are delighted to present Sophocles' Antigone, at Frederick Douglass Academy.

Participation in Aquila's Antigone in Schools program enables Frederick Douglass Academy to greatly expand their theatre course offerings, to involve as many students as possible in a theatrical endeavor, and allows students to benefit from sharing in the experience of Aquila's working theatre professionals.

The performance is the capstone event of the Aquila Theatre's Antigone in Harlem program at Frederick Douglass Academy. Since September of this year, teaching artists from Aquila have been working intensively with FDA students three days a week after-school on reading and understanding ancient Greece through English class visits, liaising with faculty, and generating a new enthusiasm for Greek Tragedy at Frederick Douglass Academy. This new program has been made possible by generous support from the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation.

Aquila Theatre's mission is to bring the greatest theatrical works to the greatest number. Aquila provides access to excellent theatre to people in many areas where there is little or no professional theatre and to under-served rural and inner city communities and presents a regular season of plays in New York and at international festivals and tours to around seventy American towns and cities a year.

"Aquila's productions of Shakespeare are dramatically revealing, beautifully spoken and crystalline in effect." -- The New Yorker

"Powerful, ensemble productions." -- The New York Times

Frederick Douglass Academy is a public Middle/High School in Harlem under the leadership of Gregory M. Hodge, Ph.D. Founded in 1991, the goal of Frederick Douglass Academy is to provide a rich, vigorous and challenging academic curriculum that will prepare students to enter the college of their choice. College preparation begins in 6th grade; New York State Regents classes start in 7th grade; with many students completing required course work by the end of the 11th grade. Students then take Advanced Placement Courses and, in some cases, introductory college courses at Hunter and City colleges. Eighty percent of the accepted students must reside in the Harlem community and twenty percent come from outside of District Five. Emphasis is placed on one's intellect and not on one's appearance. All students are expected to graduate from high school and attend college.

Scenes from Sophocles' Antigone, will play on Wednesday, December 10th 2008 at 7pm at Frederick Douglass Academy, 2581 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (149th Street and 7th Avenue). For more information and reservations, please call (212) 491-4419 or email: IRosado3@schools.nyc.gov.

For more information, visit www.aquilatheatre.com