Curios and Crinolines, by Elaine Kuracina: A Staged Reading

2 Park St,Potsdam NY 13676

10 June, 2022

Description

Come join us and our community partner, John Brown Lives!, in the Potsdam Public Library's Main Reading Room, 6 p.m., June 10, as we conclude our play-reading and discussion series Breaking Barriers: Plays at the Library with Curios and Crinolines by local playwright Elaine Kuracina. Breaking Barriers is a four-part series looking at issues that are controversial and central to our community through the lens of theatre arts. John Brown Lives!, PPL's community partner in this final reading, has a mission to not just honor John Brown’s forceful voice in bringing an end to slavery, but to take his lead and follow in his footsteps, promoting social justice and human rights through reflection and activism, awareness and exploration, kinship and individual action. Learn more about John Brown Lives! at https://johnbrownlives.org/ Curios and Crinolines, which was selected by John Brown Lives!, is the story of John Brown from the perspective of the women in his life. The audience will meet John Brown’s wife, Mary, and their daughters. As John travelled the country dedicated to his abolitionist beliefs, the women coped with sickness, poverty, and strangers treating them like ‘curiosities.’ John Brown’s alter ego is PT Barnum who adds a magical realism dimension to this historical episode. There will be old hymns sung including ‘Blow, Ye Trumpet, Blow’ - John Brown’s favorite hymn. It is directed by playwright Elaine Kuracina. John Berbrich will play the dual character of John Brown and PT Barnum. Derian Rowe will play Frederick Douglass and David Ruggles. The cast also includes: Jim Fryer, Ina, Annie and Lydia Wangerin, Zoe-Noel Byers, Holly Goddard . 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. The play will be presented again at 4PM Saturday, June 11, out under an events tent at the John Brown Farm located at 115 John Brown Rd, Lake Placid, NY 12946 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.