Deep Dish Theatre and Chapel Hill Public Library to Host DOWN THE UP ESCALATOR Book Discussion, 9/9

Deep Dish Theater Company and the Chapel Hill Public Library invite you to join a lively, informal discussion of Down the Up Escalator; How the 99% Live in the Great Recession by Barbara Garson on Monday, September 9, at 7 pm in the Library's Meeting Room D. The conversation, presented in conjunction with the theater's acclaimed production of Good People, will be led by Evelyn Daniel and is free and open to the public.

From the members of the Pink Slip Club in New York to a California home health-care aide on the eve of eviction to a subprime mortgage broker who still thinks it could have worked, Down the Up Escalator presents a sobering picture of what happens to a society when it becomes economically organized to benefit the very rich and the quick-buck speculators. As a consumer-society, the United States expects its citizens to buy the goods and services we produce, but when the rewards of greater productivity don't trickle down, the system doesn't work.

Barbara Garson is an American playwright, author and social activist, perhaps best known for the 1966 play MacBird and her 2001 non-fiction book, Money Makes the World Go Around: One Investor Tracks her Cash through the Global Economy. TheNew Yorker's George Packer wrote that her "steady engagement over many decades [with issues of work and money] has honed an appealing voice: wry, modest, realistic...like a sympathetic but slightly critical friend, ready with a hug and unable not to give advice."

This book makes a great companion piece to the Deep Dish Theater production of Good People. David Lindsay-Abaire's comic drama concerns a single mother who is unemployed and facing eviction. When she learns that an ex-boyfriend has returned to the city to set up his medical practice, she decides to hit him up for a job. The play will be performed through September 14; for details see www.deepdishtheater.org.

Everyone is welcome to the book discussion, whether or not they have seen the play or read the book, though having done either or both may make participation in the discussion more enjoyable. Other books in this year's series, all of which will be discussed at the Chapel Hill Public Library, will include: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (2007) on Monday, November 11; Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (2013) on Monday, March 17; and Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (2011) onMonday, May 19.

With every play it produces, Deep Dish Theater offers an accompanying Book Selection designed to broaden and enhance the theater-going experience. Familiarity with the book and/or the production is helpful, but the discussion can serve as an introduction to either as well.

Deep Dish Theater Company is located in Chapel Hill's University Mall, located on Estes Drive and US 15-501.

Pictured: Cast of Deep Dish Theater Company's GOOD PEOPLE.

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