Young Playwrights Theatre Presents WOODLAWN, 2/7

On February 7, 2011, at 7pm, at GALA Hispanic Theatre (3333 14th St. NW), Young Playwrights' Theater (YPT) will premiere Woodlawn, a new play created collaboratively with residents and organizations throughout Ward 7 in Washington, DC. This performance will be a free community event, open to the public.

YPT is partnering with several organizations based east of the river on this project, including the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum, Ward 7 Arts Collaborative, Life Pieces to Masterpieces, the Boys and Girls Club, the Maya Angelou Public Charter School, and Ward AME Church. The goal of the project is to engage the community in a rich, intergenerational exploration of Woodlawn Cemetery and its surrounding neighborhood to promote community dialogue and the honoring of our ancestors. 

Woodlawn Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 36,000 souls, including 6,000 individuals re-interred from the predominantly African American Graceland Cemetery between 1895 and 1898. Subsequent interments included many prominent African Americans, including Blanche K. Bruce, born a slave in 1841 and elected to the U.S. Senate in 1875, and John Mercer Langston, grand-uncle of the renowned poet Langston Hughes, U.S. Representative from Virginia and Dean of the Howard University Law School from 1869 to 1879.  Woodlawn Cemetery was placed on the DC Inventory of Historic Sites in 1991 and on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.  Since Woodlawn Cemetery became inactive in 1970, the site has fallen into disrepair. This historic DC treasure is full of rich history and important stories waiting to be told.
 
The creation and presentation of a play based on Woodlawn Cemetery history will share the stories of those interred there as well as the story of Woodlawn itself, while bringing much greater attention to the underserved area of Ward 7 and sparking much greater interest locally and nationally in an important historic site east of the river. A play about the history of Woodlawn Cemetery is akin to a walk through our nation's accomplishments. It will share the stories of those people interred there, but it is also the story of Woodlawn itself, a place rich with neglected history. Attention to Woodlawn and the surrounding underserved Ward 7 is an important turning point that will recognize well-deserved, but frequently forgotten contributions to what and who we are as a nation today.
 
With newly elected DC Mayor Vincent Gray and DC Council Chairman Kwame Brown both hailing from DC neighborhoods east of the river, it will be interesting to see whether Woodlawn Cemetery finally wins the attention it deserves as a Historic Site with rich heritage and history for the Ward 7 community.

"We are helping the community tell the stories of these important Americans and this important site," said YPT's Producing Artistic Director, David Andrew Snider, who is leading the project.
 
"We are bringing the history of the site and the extraordinary stories of those buried there into the community, so participants can learn about their own history and give voice to the voiceless. Students are taking ownership of these stories while connecting with the living history of their own neighborhood and the neighborhood Elders who are hungry to pass it on."

After premiering on February 7, the play will tour public schools, churches, community centers, museums and theatres throughout Washington, DC from February 8-18, in celebration of Black History Month. The play will also be performed at 7pm, on March 10, at the National Geographic Museum, as part of their "America I Am" exhibit. The goal of the project is to engage the community in a rich, intergenerational exploration of Woodlawn Cemetery and its surrounding neighborhood, in order to promote community dialogue and the honoring of our ancestors.
The Woodlawn Cemetery Project is made possible through the support of the Schimel Lode and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

"The Woodlawn project has been an inspiring community effort, and we hope you will join us in celebrating our shared history at the play's premiere on February 7," adds Mr. Snider.