Breaking Barriers: Plays at Potsdam Public Library

2 Park St,Potsdam NY 13676

22 April, 2022

Description

Breaking Barriers: Plays at the Library continues with Polar Bears, Black Boys, and Prairie Fringed Orchids, by Vincent Terrell Durham Come join us and our community partner, Adirondack Diversity Initiative, in the Potsdam Public Library's Main Reading Room, 6 p.m., April 22, as we continue our play-reading and discussion series Breaking Barriers: Plays at the Library with our second play-reading, Polar Bears, Black Boys, and Prairie Fringed Orchids, by Vincent Terrell Durham. Breaking Barriers is a four-part series looking at issues that are controversial and central to our community through the lens of theatre arts. Playwright Vincent Terrell Durham invites you to sit back and eavesdrop on the human condition by way of a last-minute cocktail party hosted by a well-intentioned white couple in their recently renovated Harlem brownstone. The cocktail conversations quickly reveal the various personalities gathered around the bar. Emotional debates ranging from under-weight polar bears, un-flushed toilets, saving the planet, gentrification, racial identity, and how best to protect the lives of black boys reveal how complex and varied the American experience can be. A near tragedy brings them all together, while another quickly reminds us of the times we find ourselves. Actors will read the script in the style of a staged or choral reading, reading from music stands with spoken stage directions. Following the readings, there will be a conversation between Breaking Barriers creators, participants, and community organization liaisons meant to engage in the themes, concerns, and impact of the play. To learn more about Breaking Barriers and its creation and purpose, visit https://potsdamlibrary.org/new-ppl-play-series-breaks-barriers/ This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.