Luna Stage & Ping Chong and Company Announce Talkbacks for Documentary Film: 2.2 Square Miles of Soul: Voices of Orange
2.2 Square Miles of Soul: Voices
of OrangeWHEN: beginning May 14 and premiering Tuesday, May 18 - May 23
WHERE: on the Luna Stage website
TICKETS: free
Pay-what-you-wish and free tickets are available at
lunastage.org.
Luna Stage announces two free public
conversations in conjunction with its world premiere 2.2 Square Miles of
Soul: Voices of Orange, a documentary film created in association with Ping
Chong and Company. The film features interviews with six former and current
residents of the City of Orange, New Jersey, reflecting on the social, political, and economic forces that shaped
the community over the course of the last century, including historic
disinvestment, demographic change, and the fight for representative government.
Special livestream
virtual events with the cast and creative team will be held Tuesday, May 18, at
7 pm and Sunday, May 23, at 3 pm. These interactive conversations will offer
audience members an inside view into the making of the film, and allow for
questions and community sharing. Links to access these Zoom sessions are
available on the Luna website.
The
culmination of a yearlong collaborative process led by Christina Bixland and
Matthew Martinez, 2.2 Square Miles of Soul: Voices of Orange features
Turron Kofi Alleyne (Creative Consultant), Tony Benevento, Theresa Borenstein,
Robert Currie, Rebecca Doggett, and James A. Manning, as well as the poetry of
local resident Judy Isaac.
2.2 Square Miles of Soul investigates
the intersection of personal and political histories. The project began
with virtual Community Story Circles in the summer of 2020, providing an
opportunity for connection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that year, the
creative team interviewed Orange residents past and present about their life experiences,
scripted these pieces into a narrative performance, and collaborated with the
storytellers to rehearse and film the project online.
“Assumptions have been challenged, and understanding has
deepened across folks who lived in different parts of town, and grew up in
different times,” says Bixland. “Our hope is for that kind of impact to have a
broader ripple effect—between these storytellers and the audience, and
between the audience and the surrounding communities they bring their
experience back to.”
“Getting to know these six individuals from Orange has
been a joy, and even more so witnessing the evolution of their relationships to
each other and to some of the moments in history that impacted their lives
personally and collectively,” she adds.
2.2 Square Miles of Soul: Voices of Orange is the latest in Ping Chong and Company’s Undesirable Elements
series of community-specific, interview-based theater pieces, examining issues
of place, culture, identity, and sense of belonging within communities. It was created at the invitation of, and in partnership
with, Luna Stage's Secret Cities initiative,
which commissions and produces new work inspired by local interviews and
history in an ongoing collaboration between Luna and its surrounding communities.
About Ping Chong and Company
Ping Chong and
Company creates theater and art rooted in beauty, precision, and social
justice. Founded in New York City in 1975 by Ping Chong—a theatrical innovator
and National Medal of Arts recipient—PCC has created over 100 original works
for the stage. These range from intimate oral histories that amplify
underrepresented voices, to grand scale multidisciplinary productions with
puppets, performers, music and projections.
PCC’s work is
centered on innovation, collaboration, and community engagement, and
increasingly engages multigenerational and interdisciplinary artists to respond
to, and build on, Ping Chong’s visionary body of work.
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 our communities together for artistic events that spark conversations
and create understanding and change.
The recipient
of JerseyArts People’s Choice Award for Favorite Small Theatre in NJ for the
past two years (2019 & 2020), Luna celebrates 10 years in its West Orange
location this year. In addition to professional theatre productions on its
MainStage and Luna 2, Luna offers classes for children and adults,
opportunities for early-career and established theatre artists to develop new
work, and has pivoted during the pandemic to offer a wide variety of free
virtual programming.
, in partnership with the City Council.
