NEWS

OPENING NIGHT: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19th, 8pm.

The StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance will premiere its ensemble production of Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. A diverse ensemble of fifteen actors will perform this powerful work of documentary theater, hailed by Newsweek as "an American masterpiece." The performance uses the personal testimonies of a wide range of citizens, politicians, thinkers, public servants, artists, and family members who experienced the Los Angeles riots to expose and explore the devastating human impact of that tragic event, the implications of which are still reverberating a decade later.

Originally presented by Deavere Smith in 1992 as a one-woman performance piece at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and at the New York Shakespeare Festival, the script was developed entirely from verbatim transcripts of interviews she conducted following the Rodney King verdict. During that time she conducted more than 200 interviews, ultimately selecting a fraction of these to be in the script. The StreetSigns production features fifteen performers in thirty-six roles. While the ensemble is diverse, it can in no way be said to be "representative" of the full expanse of charters portrayed (including African-Americans, Caucasians, Panamanians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans, Koreans, and so forth). With each ensemble member asked to play multiple and divergent roles, the production emphasizes the "search for character" and the nature of acting as what Smith herself calls "a constant process of becoming something." The script and staging also underscore the fluid, unfixed nature of identity itself, exploring how we might reach across ethnic boundaries to achieve greater understanding. Among the dozens of characters portrayed are Reginald Denny, Mayor Tom Bradley, Charlton Heston, Cornel West, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Angela King, Homi Bhabha, Police Commissioner Daryl Gates, and Elaine Brown, as well as a wide assortment of other witnesses, victims, gang members, jurors, activists, intellectuals and political leaders.

The ensemble includes many of the region's most recognized performers, a number of whom are appearing with StreetSigns for the first time. Torrey Lawrence (as Keith Watson, Paul Parker and Walter Park), Etheldreda Guion (as Angela King and Queen Malkah) and Sherida McMullan (as Katie Miller and Elaine Brown) are reunited after appearing together in Deep Dish Theater's A Lesson Before Dying, and are making their StreetSigns debut. Also appearing with the company for the first time are Carl Martin (as Rudy Salas and Dean Gilmour), John Murphy (as Tom Bradley, Charlton Heston, and Harland W. Braun), Kevin Poole (as Joe Viola, Timothy Wind, and Owen Smet), Katrina Harper (as Theresa Allison and Maxine Waters), Tessa Joseph (as Josie Morales and Anonymous Young Woman), Courtney Rollins (as Anonymous Gang Member and Cornel West), Aaron Scott (as Charles Lloyd and Julio Menjivar), and Jinda Wedel (as Mrs. June Park and Homi Bhabha). They are joined by StreetSigns Associate Artists Rivka Eisner (as Judith Tur and Mrs. Young-Soon Han), SaRAH! Kocz (as Stanley Sheinbaum, Elvira Evers, and Gladis Sibrian), Rick Lonon (as Charles Duke, Daryl Gates, and Reginald Denny), and Jordan Smith (as Lane Haywood, Anonymous Juror).

The production will be staged by StreetSigns' Artistic Director Derek Goldman whose directing credits include his adaptations of The Turn of the Screw, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Divine Days, Kaddish for Allen Ginsberg, White People, and A Death in the Family, as well as Hamlet, The Seagull, Antigone, Mao II, The Tempest and Twelfth Night. The production team for Twilight consists of StreetSigns Associate artists Rob Hamilton (Scenic Design), Steve Dubay (lighting design), Diana Waldier (Costume Design), Mark Olson (multimedia design, with Michael Peterson), and Emily Hanford (sound design). Jenny Duncan is the stage manager.

Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, by Anna Deavere Smith. Directed by Derek Goldman. Produced by the StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance, in partnership with The Department of Communication Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. Set Design by Rob Hamilton. Multimedia design by Mark Olson with Michael Peterson. Costume Design by Diana Waldier. Sound Design by Emily Hanford. Lighting Design by Steve Dubay. Stage managed by Jenny Duncan. Featuring Rivka Eisner, Etheldreda Guion, Katrina Harper, Tessa Joseph, SaRAH! Kocz, Torrey Lawrence, Rick Lonon, Carl Martin, Sherida McMullan, John Murphy, Kevin Poole, Courtney Rollins, Aaron Scott, Jordan Smith, and Jinda Wedel. Monday, February 17th and Tuesday February 18th: Pay-what-you-can previews at 8pm. Opening Night: Wednesday February 19th at 8pm. Continuing through March 2nd, Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm at the Swain Hall Studio 6 Theatre on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Tickets are $14 on Fridays and Saturdays, $12 on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, with Student Rush, Senior Discounts, and Group Rates available. Due to limited seating, reservations are strongly encouraged. For ticket information, please call the StreetSigns Center at 919-843-3865.

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About the company and forthcoming productions

The StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance is a performing arts and educational center based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Founded in Chicago in 1992, StreetSigns has produced thirty-seven productions in its eleven-year history. Working in partnership with the Department of Communication Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, the Center is dedicated to the development, presentation, and touring of new literary adaptations, company created theatrical works, innovative new plays, and bold re-imaginings of classics. The StreetSigns Center also houses an Institute that serves as an educational research center, through its ongoing development of a Center for Performance in Education in partnership with the UNC School of Education. This new center for research and performance practice extends and integrates the cultural resources of public schools, underserved communities, professional artists, and the university, placing particular emphasis on using performance to enrich the lives of students and citizens from the poor and excluded communities in our region.

Forthcoming productions include:

March 25-April 5th, 2003
Dream Boy, by Jim Grimsley, adapted by Eric Rosen. Directed by Joseph Megel. Set in rural North Carolina, this novel from one of the South's most celebrated writers is a lyrical and thoughtful exploration of first love between Nathan, the new boy in town, and his neighbor Roy. What begins as a simple romance becomes fused with the ghosts of Nathan's past and the gothic figures of the new South. This highly acclaimed award-winning adaptation has previously been seen professionally in Chicago, Atlanta, and San Francisco.

June 11th-29th 2003
As You Like It, by William Shakespeare. Building on its stagings of classic works such as The Seagull, Brecht's Antigone, and Midsummer Night's Dream StreetSigns offers an innovative summer staging of Shakespeare's pastoral comedy of mistaken identities and the redeeming power of love.

Fall 2003
Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith, by Studs Terkel, adapted by Derek Goldman - A world-premiere theater piece adapted from Terkel's latest Heartland-Award winning book.