Janet Langhart Cohen's ANNE & EMMETT Runs This Weekend at MetroStage

Janet Langhart Cohen, an Emmy-award nominated journalist and civil rights activist, will bring her timely play, "Anne & Emmett," to the MetroStage theater. Running today, May 7 through Saturday, May 9, the one-act play is an imaginary conversation between Anne Frank and Emmett Till, both victims of racial and religious intolerance and hatred. Acclaimed director Thomas W. Jones II ("The Islands" "Bessie's Blues") will direct the piece, with the belief it will help add to the dialogue around these issues.

"The ghost of Emmett Till lives on in cases like Freddie Gray, Amadou Diallo, Reika Boyd, Oscar Grant III, Manuel Loggins, Jr., Ronald Madison, Sean Bell, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Michael Brown-Black people across America killed over the years at the hands of those who have pledged to 'protect and serve,'" said Cohen who, as wife of former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen was known as the "First Lady of the Pentagon" for her active role in supporting the military and their families while her husband was in office. "This isn't about a restoration of justice in America, as there has never been a balance in our criminal justice system, it's about the absence of justice. While Anne and Emmett may be a part of our past, their stories are just as relevant today as ever."

Anne is the 15-year-old Jewish girl whose diary offered the world a gripping perspective of the Holocaust touching the hearts of humanity. Emmett is the 14-year-old African-American boy whose brutal murder in Mississippi sparked the modern civil rights movement. An uplifting tribute and timely reminder, "Anne & Emmett" is a call to action to "tikkun olam" (repair the world). Appropriate for all ages, this play is a powerful tribute to two teens who changed the course of history.

Tickets are on sale now for the production, which is playing at MetroStage, 1201 North Royal Street, Alexandria, Virginia. The production is a limited, three-day only run opening Thursday, May 7; performances will run through Saturday, May 9 at 8:00 p.m. with a Saturday matinee at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are $35 general admission and can be purchased online at www.BoxOfficeTickets.com or by calling MetroStage directly at (703) 548- 9044.