Social Justice Theatre Company, The Conciliation Project, Celebrates 10th Anniversary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 27, 2010
Contact: Trey Hartt, Associate Director
703-946-5217
theconciliationproject@gmail.com
TCP 2010-2011 Partnership Press Release
Richmond, VA, September 27, 2010 – The Conciliation Project (TCP), Richmond-based social justice theatre company promoting dialogue on Racism and other forms of oppression, will celebrate its 10th anniversary with five partnerships, including two newly created productions and a trip to the Fringe Theatre Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The locally run non-profit theatre company has spent the last ten years organizing, facilitating, and inspiring challenging dialogues around the United States and has called Richmond home since 2005. Artistic Director and Conceptualist Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates has seen the company grow from the beginning and remarks that “the fact that The Conciliation Project is still an active and tenacious theatre company after a decade of work is both amazing and sobering to me. It takes a tremendous amount of courage, heart and soul to engage in social justice work and yet that is the work of un-doing racism. Massive amounts of creative energy from young people was the catalyst that moved this project forward and it is that spirit that has continued to ignite new passion and a deepening and more urgent commitment to the work of TCP. We have grown far beyond anyone’s expectations and we intend to continue to push forward actively engaging our past in order to build our future together as a people who value one another and ALL of our collective histories. We are inextricably bound together.”
For its 2010-2011 season, TCP will actively engage the city around issues including bullying in schools, equal access to fair housing, ethnic and racial stereotypes in mass media, immigration and border control, the continuing struggle between black and white and America’s racial history. TCP’s concern is historic legacy, and with the 160th anniversary of the Civil War approaching in 2011 the social and political issues The Conciliation Project’s company will address are not only topical in remembering our country’s tumultuous history, they are relevant to the growth of this historic city.
Here is a snapshot of events to come:
PUSHED: EXPLORATIONS INTO BULLYING
Previewing September 30, 2010 to be ready for touring Richmond Metro Area schools
Directed by Donzell Lewis
Ensemble: Carla Joseph, Olivia Luna, Jesse Mattes, Courtney McCullough, Louisa Sargent, Nicholas Webster
In partnership with Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities (www.inclusiveva.org)
TCP has partnered with the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities in the creation of an engaging theatrical examination into the plague of bullying, intimidation, and victimization. Through storytelling and drama Pushed asks, “What is a bully?”; “Who does bullying affect?”; and “How do you stop a bully?”. This piece will tour area high schools in an effort to inspire dialogue with our students, teachers, administrators, and parents empowering action on this timely topic.
haustalk: ETHNIC AND RACIAL STEREOTYPES IN MASS MEDIA
November 3rd, 6:30pm
Virginia State University, Petersburg, VA
Sponsored and hosted by Thinkhaus (www.thinkhausdesign.com)
Thinkhaus, a socially conscious graphic design company based in Richmond, will host this important conversation as the second haustalk event of the season. haustalk is a networking forum to discuss socially conscious and creative issues and this one is the culmination of a project with 1st year design students at Virginia State University. Along with students sharing presentations on the topic, TCP will facilitate a conversation on the media’s role in promoting stereotypes and racial prejudice.
UN-EQUAL ACCESS: A JOURNEY TOWARDS H.O.M.E.
November 19th, “Friends of HOME” event
Touring opportunities to be announced
Virginia Holocaust Museum
2000 East Cary Street
Directed by Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates
Ensemble: Justin Delaney, Crystal Johnson, Elyse Jolley, Olivia Luna, Jesse Mattes, Courtney McCullough, Nicholas Webster
In partnership with Housing Opportunities Made Equal (www.phonehome.org)
Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) was founded in 1971 to fight discrimination in housing access. TCP will use cases, data, and interviews gathered by HOME to create a piece on housing discrimination. Un-Equal Access will premiere at the “Friends of HOME” event November 19th at the Virginia Holocaust Museum and then tour communities around Virginia asking how we can fight housing discrimination guaranteeing access to fair housing for all Virginia residents.
STOLEN LAND: BORDER CROSSINGS
June 2-5 and June 9-12
Unity of Richmond, near Byrd Park
Directed by: Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates
Auditions: April 2011, check www.theconciliationproject.org for more information
In partnership with Art180, residency at Huguenot High School (www.art180.org)
This poetic drama, the fourth in The Conciliation Project’s repertory, gives recognition to the stories and experiences of Latin American and Chicano(a) peoples. With this production, TCP is partnering with Art180 in a 12-week residency at Huguenot High School empowering English as a Second Language (ESL) students to write and perform their own written pieces about their voice as it pertains to race and identity. These pieces will be incorporated into the performance of Stolen Land with the youth performing and designing the show alongside TCP company members.
uncle tom: de-constructed
July 2011, Unity of Richmond
August 2011, Edinburgh International Collegiate Theatre Festival
Directed by: Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates
Co-sponsored with TheatreVCU
uncle tom: de-constructed is TCP’s inaugural production. This performance will be the fourth time it has been presented to Richmond audiences. The run is for one week only as TCP prepares for an overseas trip to the Edinburgh Theatre Festival in Scotland! uncle tom: de-constructed interrogates the characters in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, examining the premise and construct Stowe sets up in her book and making correlations to blackface minstrelsy as the direct predecessor to current racist stereotypes within communities of color. The Conciliation Project and TheatreVCU will partner to bring this conversation to the Fringe Festival in Scotland.
ABOUT THE CONCILIATION PROJECT
The Conciliation Project is a non-profit, creative social service organization dedicated to using theatre arts to inform, inspire, and include everyone in the dialogue on Racism in America. TCP’s work illuminates the distortions of our country’s racial history, provides an honest interrogation of that history, while including marginalized, under-represented and unheard voices. The performances are representational of the American cultural landscape: black, red, yellow, brown, and white. TCP engages communities in a collaborative process to facilitate dialogue geared toward community empowerment and inclusion of all voices in America’s cultural landscape. The company offers workshops, dialogue sessions, performances, and lectures for businesses, organizations, and communities to help in the process of eliminating racial and cultural stereotypes and the movement towards equality and social justice.
Contact Information:
www.theconciliationproject.org
www.facebook.com/theconciliationproject
2302 Falkirk Drive
Richmond, VA 23236
703-946-5217
Artistic Director, Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates
Associate Director, Trey Hartt
Community Outreach Coordinator, Andrienne Wilson
Board Chairman, Nicholas Webster
Secretary/Treasurer, Courtney McCullough
Board Members: Joseph Carlson, Jasmine Coles, Olisa Enrico-Johnson, Alison Haracznak, Donzell Lewis, Jesse Mattes, Gwendolyn Nixon, Archana Pathak, Louisa Sargent, Jason Sawyer, Dennis Williams
