The play EMBERS: The Flint Fires Verbatim Theatre Project will be performed throughout the community in late August and early September, with a dialogue session immediately following. The 90-minute play begins each night at 6:30pm, with one matinee performance on August 21 at 3pm. Admission is free, but advance notice of attendance is recommended.
EMBERS: The Flint Fires Verbatim Theatre Project began in a classroom at the University of Michigan-Flint during the 2011 winter semester as a means to address the previous year’s relentless string of arsons and to give a voice to those directly impacted. Through the course Collective Playwrights Workshop, students interviewed people affected by the fires and wrote a script from the testimonies, conversations and news reports they gathered–with the goal of a play that would create a dialogue within the community and hopefully help with the healing process. That script eventually became EMBERS.
Several community-based organizations also have partnered in the project: The Urban League of Flint, Raise it Up! Youth Arts & Awareness, The Kearsley Park Block Redevelopment Project, and the Hispanic Community & Technology Center. The project is the UM-Flint Theatre Department’s second collaborative theatre project to be awarded funding from Arts of Citizenship, a University of Michigan initiative to increase community engagement through the arts.
For more information: 810-762-3230 or anmorton@umflint.edu. Facebook: EMBERS: The Flint Fires Verbatim Theatre Project.
Performance dates and times:
Friday, August 19, 6:30pm : Hispanic Technology & Community Center, 2101 Lewis St.
Saturday, August 20, 6:30pm: Peace Mob Gardens (outside performance), 1425 Illinois Ave.
Sunday, August 21, 3pm: The Urban League of Flint, 5005 Cloverlawn Dr.
Friday, August 26, 6:30pm: Hispanic Technology & Community Center, 2101 Lewis St.
Saturday, August 27, 6:30pm: Hoffman’s Deli (outside performance), 503 Garland St.
Friday, September 9, 6:30pm: UM-Flint University Center, KIVA Auditorium, 303 E. Kearsley St.
Saturday, September 10, 6:30pm: UM-Flint University Center, KIVA Auditorium, 303 E. Kearsley St.
This project is generously supported by:
Arts of Citizenship (UM Ann Arbor)
The Ruth Mott Foundation
The University of Michigan-Flint Department of Theatre and Dance
The University of Michigan-Flint Office of Development and Alumni Relations
The University of Michigan-Flint Student Government Council
The University of Michigan-Flint Diversity Council
The University of Michigan-Flint University Outreach
The University of Michigan-Flint University Relations
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