The Juneteenth Justice Theatre Project Begins With POLAR BEARS, BLACK BOYS, & PRAIRIE FRINGED ORCHIDS

On Friday, Juneteenth, (June 19th), theater communities around the country will provide their response to the current moment - the civil uprising that has come as a reaction to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others before them. The need for collective action and a collective commitment to speak the truth has never greater. Now more than ever there is a tremendous opportunity to dismantle systemic racism. This is true everywhere, including the American theater. This spark of an opportunity, coupled with Vincent Terrell Durham's writing, has erupted in simultaneous free readings of Durham's new play, Polar Bears, Black Boys, & Prairie Fringed Orchids.

A finalist for the 2019 National New Play Network's National Showcase of New Plays, with a surprising amount of humor the play speaks to gentrification, white fragility, the Black Lives Matter movement, and police violence against Black bodies.

Jobsite and Stageworks have teamed up with Rory Lawrence Productions on a video stream reading on Juneteenth, Fri., June 19, that will be made available all day through their websites and social media platforms. The six-person cast (Emily Belvo, Johnny Garde, Patrick A. Jackson, Nancy Mizzell, Andresia Moseley, Derrick Phillips) will appear via video socially-distanced on the Stageworks stage under the direction of Jobsite Producing Artistic Director David M. Jenkins.

The stream is free, but viewers are encouraged donate to select charities such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, the NAACP, Black Lives Matter, and a new national fund for Black American theater. We're proud to join theaters around the country in offering this play. In the San Francisco Bay Area alone nearly 30 theaters have joined together under the auspice of the PlayGround Zoom Fest and in partnership with SAG-AFTRA.

Learn more at https://www.jobsitetheater.org/juneteenth-justice-theatre-project/.