Underground Railway Theater Presents HARRIET JACOBS In MA 3/3-7, In RI 3/10-13

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Following its sold-out run at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, Harriet Jacobs, Lydia R. Diamond's play that tells the harrowing true story about the life of a slave in the years leading to the Civil War, will make two more stops in New England. Presented by Underground Railway Theater in collaboration with artists from The Providence Black Repertory Company, Harriet Jacobs will play at Hibernian Hall in Roxbury, MA, March 3 - 7, and at Perishable Theatre in Providence, RI March 10 - 13.

Harriet Jacobs wrapped up a four week, critically acclaimed run at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge on January 31. Cathy Carr Kelly, executive director of the Central Square Theater announced the mini-tour, and remarked "the public response was overwhelming! We had to turn away so many who wanted to see the show, so we decided to bring it to two more cities. The production is being re-staged to fit into the two theaters."

Astonishing and moving, Harriet Jacobs is the story of a remarkable woman's resistance to oppression. In Lydia R. Diamond's adaptation of Jacobs' autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet reaches out from her own era and compels us to look at our history as if for the first time. Directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian, this unsparing yet poetic coming-of-age story is based on the only published book-length slave narrative written by a woman.

Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley St., Roxbury, MA
Sponsored by Roxbury Center for Arts at Hibernian Hall
Wed., Mar. 3 & Thurs., Mar. 4: school matinees at 10 AM each day
Sat., Mar. 6: 3 PM and 8:00 PM
Sun., Mar. 7: 3 PM matinee
Tickets are priced at $15 ($10 if bought before Mar. 1); at $8 for children under 14; $12 for seniors (over 60) and students (14 to 22 years) during week of show.
Tickets and information: www.madison-park.org by calling 617-849-6322, and at box office show week

Perishable Theatre, 95 Empire Street, Providence, RI
www.perishable.org
Wed., Mar. 10 thru Sat., Mar. 13 at 7:30 PM
Sat., Mar. 13: 3 PM matinee
Tickets are priced at $20, $15 for seniors, students, and military
Tickets on sale through ART TIX (401) 621-6123, www.Arttixri.com and at the door

Lydia Diamond's plays include: Stick Fly (in production at The Huntington Theatre in February '10), Voyeurs de Venus, The Bluest Eye, The Gift Horse, Stage Black, and Harriet Jacobs. Producing Theatres include: Arena Stage, Huntington, New Vic, Goodman, Steppenwolf, Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, McCarter, Playmakers Rep, Providence Black Rep, Chicago Dramatists, Congo Square, TrueColors, The Matrix, and Company One. Commissions include: Steppenwolf, Humana/Victory
Gardens, McCarter, Huntington, and Roundabout. Lydia is on faculty at Boston University, is an ‘06/07 Huntington Playwright Fellow, and a current TCG Executive Board Member.

Underground Railway Theater connects professional theater with community, combining actors, bold design and music to create theater of social content and great visual beauty, theater that challenges and delights, informs and celebrates. The company has a 30-year history of commissioning and presenting new works, and is now in residence at the Central Square Theater.

The Providence Black Repertory Company (Black Rep) presents performances that bring people together, provoke thought, inspire hope, and create understanding. Seasons are curated to engage in a conversation with popular "American" narratives, with a view towards the interrogation and re-appropriation of its mythology, providing unique experiences inspired by the cultural traditions of the African Diaspora.

This is the first creative partnership between Underground Railway and Black Rep. The actors come from both Providence and Boston, the director is the resident director for Black Rep, and the design team includes artists who have worked with both companies. After the Cambridge performances, a chamber version of the play will be performed in Providence (dates and venue to be announced).

Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian was the Associate Director of The Providence Black Repertory Company from 2005 till 2009, where her production of Tracy Letts' Bug was nominated for four RI Motif Awards including Best Director and Best Production. Other recent projects include a contemporary rock-musical version of Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan (Cornish College, Seattle), an adaptation of King Lear (The 52nd Street Project, NYC), and a workshop of Jacqui Parker's Jeanie Don't Sing No Mo' at the Huntington Theatre. This spring she will helm the Rhode Island premiere of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Perishable Theatre.

The Acting Ensemble includes Kortney Adams, Ramona Alexander, De'Lon Grant, Mishell Lilly, Raidge, Obehi Janice and Kami Smith.

The design team for Harriet Jacobs includes Susan Zeeman Rogers (set), winner of an NEA-TCG Designer Fellowship and several awards from Independent Reviewers of New England Chip Schoonmaker (costumes), winner of multiple Emmy awards; David Roy (lighting) who has worked at Black Rep, Trinity, and The Public Theatre in NYC; Clarice LaVerne Thompson (music); and Melody Ruffin Ward (choreography).

About Central Square Theater
At Central Square Theater, a new state-of-the-art community-based theatrical arts facility, audiences will find, under one roof, the distinctive repertoires of two award-winning non-profit professional companies, The Nora Theatre Company and Underground Railway Theater, as well as collaborative projects drawing on their creative synergy. Schools, families and community groups will benefit from outreach and educational programs, and local businesses will enjoy increased foot traffic and new customers. As the first permanent home for these two theater companies, Central Square Theater will be a vibrant hub of theatrical, educational and social activity, where artists and audiences come together to create theater vital to our communities.

The seeds of the Central Square Theater (CST) were sown in 1997, with a partnership between The Nora Theatre Company, Underground Railway Theater, and the Community Development Department of the City of Cambridge, which brokered a relationship with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT constructed the building and provided an extraordinary 20-year lease commitment at under $5 per square foot -- a contribution valued at more than $2 million over time.

For more information, please call 617-576-9278 or go to www.centralsquaretheater.org.

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