International Touring Company Progress Theatre Offers Free Workshop on Making Theatre from History
On October 1, 1:30-4pm, the truly inspired Progress Theatre ensemble will perform an excerpt of their a-capella musical, The Burnin’, and also hold a workshop on making theatre from history.
The workshop will focus on research, story-gathering, interpretation, and engagement with historical events that can inspire a play. Participants will share their own historical memories of identity, place, and community, and then reimagine, reinterpret, and retell those stories in theatrical terms, in the process learning tools for sharing and preserving histories and cultures, and also explore creative ways of performing communal history with a public.
The event will take place at the Alsace Township Municipal Building, 65 Woodside Avenue, Temple, PA 19560. It is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is strongly recommended. For more information and to register, contact info@artinthefields.org.
Progress Theatre is based in Houston, Texas, and has toured nationally and internationally since 2000. Its dynamic, original performances encourage social consciousness, cross-community dialogue, and cultural awareness. Founder Cristal Chanelle Truscott calls their work Neo-Spirituals &mdash a-capella musicals integrating styles from Negro Spirituals to Blues, Jazz, NeoSoul, R&B, Hip-Hop, and Spoken Word. The workshop will begin with an excerpt from The Burnin’, inspired by the 2003 E2 Club tragedy in Chicago and its historical parallel, the Rhythm Night Club fire in Natchez, Mississippi in 1940.
Art in the Fields is grateful to Berks County Community Foundation for financial support, and to Alsace Township for providing space for this event. Alsace Township has begun a Local History Group that is also open to the public. For more information, contact alsacetwp@comcast.net.