PRIVATE PEACEFUL And Spectrum Dance Theater Feature This Week At Annenberg Center Live

Annenberg Center Live presents two powerful shows this week: Private Peaceful (October 11-13) and Spectrum Dance Theater's A Rap on Race (October 12-13).

In the one-man play Private Peaceful, a young World War I soldier, Private Tommo Peaceful, faces the firing squad at dawn and marks the hours by recalling memories from his short but wonderful life, long before the dreadful horrors of war. This critically-acclaimed play tours the U.S. for the first time, serving as a timely reminder, now 100 years later, of the heroic sacrifices of WWI veterans. Written by the celebrated author of the Broadway hit War Horse, Michael Malpurgo, Shane O'Regan plays Private Peaceful and a host of other characters from his life. Performances are Thursday, October 11 and Friday, October 12 at 7:30 PM, and Saturday, October 13 at 2:00 PM and 7:30 PM.

Nearly 50 years ago, two towering public figures, African-American author James Baldwin and white anthropologist Margaret Mead, sat together and recorded an epic and intimate seven-and-a-half-hour conversation about race in America. Now, choreographer Donald Byrd (who also stars in the work) and playwright Anna Deavere Smith re-imagine that conversation in the present in A Rap on Race. Spectrum Dance Theater makes its Philadelphia debut with this new dance-theatre work, which combines dialogue with movement and music to communicate the complexities of talking about race, at a time when that conversation is as necessary as ever. Performances are Friday, October 12 and Saturday, October 13 at 8:00 PM. An additional Student Discovery performance for schoolchildren will be presented Friday, October 12 at 10:30 AM.

The 18/19 dance series is presented by Annenberg Center Live and NextMove Dance. The presentation of Spectrum Dance Theater was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Annenberg Center Live's 2018-19 chronological calendar is available at www.AnnenbergCenter.org.

Photo Credit: Tom Lawlor