Every 28 Hours, a theater project inspired by the hotly-debated statistic that a black person is killed by the police, security guards or neighborhood watch vigilantes every 28 hours in the United States, is coming to McCarter Theatre.
The McCarter Theatre Center will partner with the Princeton University Lewis Center for the Arts and Department of African American Studies to present a 60-minute collection of the plays The Every 28 Hours Plays on Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. on McCarter Theatre’s Berlind Stage.
Conceived shortly after the August 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, The Every 28 Hours Plays tap into the role that the arts have played in helping people to process and protest what happened in Ferguson—from the death of Brown and the unrest that followed to the issues of racial inequality that it raised.
The presentation of one-minute plays will be directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian. The Every 28 Hours Plays include works by playwrights Terrell Alvin McCraney, Lynn Nottage, Dominique Morriseau, and David Henry Hwang, among others.
The presentation of the plays will be followed by a community discussion and panel designed to highlight and create awareness of the people and organizations in the community who are doing anti-racism work. The most updated list of panelists may be found here.
“Since the beginning of my career in the theater, I have been committed to exploring the connection between theater and social justice,” said McCarter Artistic Director Emily Mann. “In these heartbreaking and infuriating times, when African Americans are facing so much violence and the rest of the country is finally being forced to witness what black Americans have been facing all along, we as a theater committed to our community have to take action. Bringing members of our community together from all sides of the issue to share stories and engage in constructive, emphatic dialogue is a first step towards affecting change.”
Tickets are free and can be reserved by calling the ticket office at (609) 258-2787 or visiting mccarter.org/E28H.
The Every 28 Hours Plays will be performed on Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. on the Berlind Stage.,
