Harriet Jacobs Now in Rehearsals at KC Rep
By: Gabrielle Sierra Oct. 08, 2010
Harriet Jacobs, a triumphant, true story about a young slave's journey through and out of slavery. is in rehearsal at Kansas City Repertory Theatre. The play, written by Lydia R. Diamond and directed by Jessica Thebus, is adapted from Jacobs' book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, originally published in 1861 and considered to be one of the most important slave narratives of the Abolitionist Movement.
As a young woman in North Carolina, Jacobs hid in a tiny garret for nearly seven years, until she was able to escape to freedom. Although she was a prominent abolitionist activist during much of her life, Jacobs was virtually unknown at the time of her death in 1897. Diamond is the recipient of multiple awards from the L.A. Drama Critics Circle, Black Theatre Alliance, Joseph Jefferson Awards, and, earlier this year, Harriet Jacobs was nominated for the 2010 Elliot Norton Award for Best Play. Her impressive body of work includes Stick Fly, Voyeurs de Venus, The Bluest Eye, The Gift Horse and Lizzie Stanton. Diamond has been commissioned to create new works for Steppenwolf Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, Huntington Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville/Victory Gardens and Roundabout Theatre Company. She has also been Playwright in Residence at Steppenwolf Theatre, and is currently Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and on the faculty of Boston University.Thebus is an Associate Artist at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre. She has directed productions at many Chicago theatres including Intimate Apparel, When the Messenger is Hot-also at 59E59 in New York (Steppenwolf); Our Town (Lookingglass Theatre); The Clean House (Goodman Theatre); Eurydice (Victory Gardens) and The Turn of the Screw (Writers' Theatre). Thebus is a longtime collaborator with Kansas City Rep's artistic director Eric Rosen, having directed Pulp (Jefferson Award nomination-Best Director, After Dark Award-Best Production), Winesburg, Ohio (Jeff nomination-Best Director, After Dark Award-Best Director) and Seven Moves at Chicago's About Face Theatre, of which Rosen is the former artistic director.
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