Luna
Stage Streams The Voting Writes Project
The Voting Writes Project
WHEN: Through November 15, 2020
WHERE:
For more information visit http://www.lunastage.org or email info@lunastage.org
The ambitious and multifaceted Voting Writes Project at Luna
Stage culminates with a final week of streaming the program’s diverse,
interdisciplinary content. A celebration of suffrage designed to inspire
voter participation, the project included six world premiere short plays, nine
community conversations, four commissioned short films, and a nine-song concept
album. The series will be available on Luna’s website and social media
through November 15, 2020.
Originally intended to be staged throughout New Jersey
communities, the Voting Writes Project pivoted to an online
format with the onset of COVID-19. This allowed Luna Stage to share the stories
on a larger scale than previously imagined; the project features work by
37 artists and has been viewed virtually by over 10,000 people.
“It was truly a privilege to collaborate with artists across the
country in building and telling these stories in advance of the 2020
presidential election,” said Artistic Director Ari Laura Kreith, who conceived
the Voting Writes Project and facilitated its creation over the course of six
months.
Activists, writers, directors, filmmakers, actors and musicians
met weekly over Zoom to share personal stories, questions and research around
voter engagement and disenfranchisement. This process informed their work as
they created pieces 31 distinct pieces exploring civic participation, ranging
from a short play set in a dystopian Zoom breakout room, to a documentary film
about voting for the first time after incarceration, to a song cycle about
voting rights and suppression.
"These stories are revelatory and emboldening," said
Maxim Thorne, Managing Director of The Andrew Goodman Foundation, who
collaborated with Luna Stage on the project's development.
“The virtual nature this project allowed Luna to deeply engage its
mission of sharing local and global stories in a time when we are forced to be
physically apart, and to continue bringing communities together for
conversations that create understanding and change,” said Kreith.
Luna commissioned six world premiere plays for the project. In
Jenny Lyn Bader's My First Time, three stories of political
initiation interwoven over 6 decades echo across time and span generations.
Rachel Shapiro Cooper's interview-based Another Number in the Pool explores
the reasons people don't vote; Amanda Sage Comerford’s Florida! is
a fantasia inspired by letters written to voters in swing states; and Bernardo
Cubría's The Breakout Room follows non-voters trapped in a
Zoom reality. Two solo pieces round out the offerings: Rajesh Bose's solo
conversation When They Go Low examines race in America; and
Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin’s Count Me In documents voters who
learn their ballots were not counted.
Modeled after Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads,
writer Jim Knable’s Songs of Suffrage shares history lessons
about voting rights and repression, alongside the artist’s personal
experiences. The 9-song cycle concept album is accompanied by a series of music
videos by filmmaker Joey Yow, showcasing the debut track “Don’t Wait” along
with other songs from the album.
Voting Rights films include Teens
Talk Voting, based on interviews with teenagers all over the country,
and The Power To Vote, a documentary about Boris Franklin
registering to vote for the first time after incarceration and reflecting on
what voting means to him. These films chronicle voters’ real-life experiences
and emotions, and are directed by Maggie Borgen, the latter in collaboration
with Ari Laura Kreith and Turron Kofi Alleyne.
Cookin’ Up Votes with Leola features five interviews
hosted by "everyone’s favorite senior citizen lesbian from the Okefenokee
Swamp" in Georgia, bringing us fireside chats with special guests
including Maxim Thorne, Managing Director of the Andrew Goodman
Foundation, and Elizabeth Juviler, founder and former Political Director of
grassroots activist organization NJ 11th for Change. The satirical interview
series features writer and performer Will Nolan as Leola.
The Voting Writes Project featured the work of
20 actors: Amalia Adiv (Portraits US: COVID-19, Verbatim Performance Lab),
Rajesh Bose (India Ink, Roundabout Theatre Company), Giuliana Carr (Mrs. Stern
Wanders the Prussian State Library, Luna Stage); June Carryl (Mindhunter),
Pauline Chalamet (The King of Staten Island, dir. Judd Apatow), comedian Nnamdi
Chikezie, karen Eilbacher (Fun Home, Bway National Tour); Leslie Fray (The
Sinner), Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin (Ambition, Ars Nova), Marcus D. Harvey (An
American Dream, The Old Vic, London), Gary Martins (Twelve Angry Men, Company
Theatre Group), Jevonnah Mayo (Mourning Sun, Kampala Int'l Theatre Festival),
Isabel Keating (Wicked, Broadway); Janeena Piñero (Drought), Kevin Qian, Alysia
Reiner (Orange is the New Black), Roland Ruiz (Boyhood, dir. Richard
Linklater), Melissa Schaffer (Windows, Kean Stage), Indika Senanayake (Occupy
Your Mind, The Civilians), Rachel B. Shapiro, and Liz Zazzi (The Girl with the
High Rouge, NJ Rep).
Directors included Turron Kofi Alleyne, Maggie Borgen, Jessica
Brater, Rachel Shapiro Cooper, Alana Dietze, Cara Hinh, and Ari Laura Kreith.
The Voting Writes Project was created in
collaboration with the Andrew Goodman Foundation with support
from the National Endowment for the Arts.
About Luna Stage
Luna Stage develops and produces vibrant
plays about local and global experiences. Firmly rooted in New Jersey's Valley
Arts District—a crossroads of cultures—Luna brings its communities together
for artistic events that spark conversations and create understanding and
change.
Luna Stage is the recipient of the 2019
People's Choice Award for Favorite Small Theatre in New Jersey. Luna has contributed
to the development of over 100 new works for the stage, many of which premiered
at Luna and have gone on to be produced in New York, regionally and
internationally.
As producer, innovator, and educator, Luna is dedicated to eliminating barriers to participation and allowing all community members to nurture their own creativity and vision. Luna offers classes for children and adults, as well as opportunities for early-career and established theatre artists to develop and incubate new work.