New play looks at systemic racism and white fragility (Black boy by Goulwen Reboux. Prairie Fringed Orchid by Ananda Heller. Polar Bear by Candy Witcher. Arrangement by Vincent Terrell Durham. Used with permission.)
Who: Barrington Stage
What: Special Juneteenth reading
Where: Zoom, Proctors Collaborative YouTube, Capital Rep Facebook
When: Friday June 19, and Monday, June 22, free with advance RSVP (suggested donation of $10 for Black Theatre), 7:30
Why: Most of America probably had never heard of Juneteenth until the last week or so, as protests over police brutality spread across the nation and President Trump initially was going to hold a rally on June 19 — the anniversary of the end of the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves — in Tulsa, Oklahoma, site of the brutal 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. But things are changing. On June 19 at 7:30, Pittsfield-based Barrington Stage and Albany’s Capital Rep, among many other US theater companies, are joining forces with the Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project to present a live PlayGround Zoom Fest reading of Vincent Terrell Durham’s new play, Polar Bears, Black Boys & Prairie Fringed Orchids. They will give an encore live reading on June 22 at 7:30; admission is free with advance RSVP, although $10 donations are encouraged to help support Black Theatre.
In the play, screenwriter, poet, author, and former stand-up comic Durham (The Fertile River, Vol. 1; A Post Racial America) invites the audience to a cocktail party hosted by a white liberal couple in their renovated Harlem brownstone, with such guests as a Black Lives Matter black activist, his gay white lover, and the mother of a murdered young black boy as issues of systemic racism, gentrification, police brutality, and white fragility set everyone on edge. The cast, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene, features Kent Burnham, West Dews, Adrian Kiser, Tracy Liz-Miller, Michael McCorry Rose, Bianca Stinney, Matthew Tenorio, and Peterson Townsend. The Monday performance will be followed by a live Q&A with Barrington community engagement coordinator Sharron Frazier-McClain.