George Street Playhouse reimagines Joe DiPietro’s Conscience for Zoom
Who: Harriet Harris, Mark Junek, Lee Sellars, Cathryn Wake
What: Live world premiere play reading
Where: George Street Playhouse
When: October 27-31, November 11-15, suggested donation $25
Why: In March, the world premiere of two-time Tony winner Joe DiPietro’s Conscience opened at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, but the pandemic shut it down. The original cast is now reuniting for a live, virtual adaptation streaming October 27-31 (with an encore November 11-15). The play is built around Maine senator Margaret Chase Smith’s “Declaration of Conscience,” which she delivered on the Senate floor on June 1, 1950; it was directed at President Harry S. Truman and explained that “the United States Senate has long enjoyed worldwide respect as the greatest deliberative body in the world. But recently that deliberative character has too often been debased to the level of a forum of hate and character assassination sheltered by the shield of congressional immunity” while also calling for “the right to criticize. The right to hold unpopular beliefs. The right to protest. The right of independent thought.” Sound familiar? Tony winner Harriet Harris (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Desperate Housewives) stars as Smith, with Lee Sellars as Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Mark Junek as William Lewis, and Cathryn Wake as Jean Kerr, directed by David Saint. For more on the production, you can watch an April Q&A with Wake here and listen to a virtual symposium with Saint, DiPietro, and playhouse director of education and community artistic programming Jim Jack here.