The evening commences with a staged reading of St. Stephen: A Passion Play, by Janus Adams (The Janus Adams Show) featuring a cast of local performers including Oliver King, Adrienne Jensen, Ashtyn Buckley, Robin Grey Wolf, John Roth, Jess Beveridge and Tannis Kowalchuk, and directed by Mimi McGurl.
Following the play reading, farm fresh food from Willow Wisp Organic Farm and refreshments will be served up with a community conversation hosted and moderated by Janus Adams.
St. Stephen: A Passion Play is a performance piece for actors, dancers, and musicians. Rooted in Afri-Caribbean ritual and experimental theater, Adams penned it in 1981, and this June 19th, the play will take on new life at Farm Arts Collective in honor of Juneteenth.
The main character of the performance is LADY (played by Adrienne Jensen) ―an ancestral spirit who appears to us as a bag woman. Her home is Crossroads, a train terminal, maintained by time-keeper/station-master and ceremonial priest, KEEPER/HOUNGAN. People come and go at all hours (historic dates) to and from the same destinations (destinies) that keep the all-too-human condition on track. In LADY's shopping bags are bits and pieces of history she has preserved to tell us who we are, where we’ve come from and where we’re headed. At “home,” reading a crumpled newspaper, she learns of the South African medical/law-student-turned anti-apartheid freedom fighter, Stephen Bantu Biko. Unable to save STEVE, LADY knows she must preserve his story; make known this St. Stephen's martyrdom in the cause of universal human rights.
Hear an open rehearsal live streamed from the studios of Radio Catskill on Saturday, June 17, at 12 noon.