First episode of WVPT project to air Nov. 23 across West Virginia
Newsroom@DominionPost.com
When the pandemic reared its ugly head back in March, West Virginia Public Theatre’s creative team wasn’t sure when or what its next show would be.
They put their heads together to find a voice and foster a way to continue to create art that is relevant and safe during a pandemic and came up with an old — and new — idea. Radio Theatre for Our Time is a dramatization of non-dramatic text drawn from letters and speeches meant to have relevance in the country’s current social conditions.
“In an attempt to be true to our mission, we have been grappling with the dilemma of how to deliver dynamic live theater in these challenging times,” said Jerry McGonigle, artistic director at WVPT. “Not only are we trying to create vital and relevant theater during a pandemic, but we are also right in the middle of a civil rights movement that will define our lives for many generations to come”
To create this project, McGonigle teamed up with long-time friend and colleague, Harry Waters Jr., who is a professor in the theater department of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., and associate dean for the Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship.
“I am the link between the writers, developers as well as panels,” Waters said, “We are hoping to have intentional discussions as a result of these recorded theater performances/presentations that include responses from several different lenses: Artistic, academic and community.”
Not only is Waters a link between the writers and developers, but he is also the host of the first episode.
Every installment of Radio Theatre for Our Time will feature the dramatization and performance of a typically non-dramatic text. These texts could be letters, speeches or other written or published materials.
The first episode is a dramatized reading of “Letter From A Birmingham Jail,” written by Martin Luther King Jr. during a 1963 incarceration in a Birmingham city jail.
The script was conceived and adapted by Mya Brown, assistant professor of theater at the University of North Carolina — Greensboro, who also directed the ensemble of actors.
“I’m grateful for the chance to collaborate with West Virginia Public Theatre to bring a contemporary voice to Dr. King’s resounding message that ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,’ ” Brown said.
Brown is also a former member of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee at SUNY Oswego.
Each episode will include a panel discussion. The first panel is comprised of Omi Artesia Green, an associate professor of theater and Africana studies, and a Faculty Fellow at William and Mary, Danielle Walker, a Democrat representing Monongalia County in the West Virginia House of Delegates, and Henri Jac Houston, the former vice president of marketing operations for HBO’s programming sales division.
“Hearing the panelists respond to the reading was really eye-opening,” Brown said. “To have them reflect on it and say all of the things that I had in my imagination about what kind of impact this piece would have was very satisfying. It’s an important discussion to be had.”
After working months on the project and finally hearing open discussions happen about the first episode, the creative team is excited about the kinds of conversations that will occur in response to their radio show.
“It is our hope that these examinations of ‘voices for our time’ will be engaging, entertaining and, most importantly, thought provoking,” McGonigle said.
Episode 1 of Radio Theatre For Our Time — “Letter From A Birmingham Jail” — is available to stream on West Virginia Public Theatre’s website www.wvpublictheatre.org. West Virginia Public Broadcasting will air the project at 8 p.m. Nov. 23 throughout the state.
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