Theater Collaboration Celebrates Juneteenth with Play that Explores Difficult Conversations About Race

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2020

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

To commemorate Juneteenth, the celebration of emancipation from slavery, nearly 40 Bay Area theaters and others nationwide are collaborating on a project to bring a thought-provoking play about race into people’s homes. As part of The Juneteenth Theater Justice Project, staged readings of playwright Vincent Terrell Durham’s play, “Polar Bears, Black Boys and Prairie Fringed Orchids”, will be live streamed from theaters around the country on Zoom on June 19th. We’ll talk with the playwright and the project leader about the play and what a celebration of freedom means in a time of heightened attention to systemic racism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, a wellness resort in Baja, California, just an hour from San Diego.
0:07.6	Three, four, and seven-night summer packages include fitness classes, hiking, live music, mindfulness, and culinary adventures, featuring fruits and veggies straight off the vine.
0:18.9	Special rates and offers are available for summer stays and first-time guests.
0:23.8	Saver summer at Rancho LaPuerta, rancho LaPuerta.com.
0:28.3	Support for Forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:35.7	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of
0:40.0	Leo and Lucille Frank, a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is
0:46.9	accused of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice,
0:55.1	and devotion.
1:01.1	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orpheum Theater for three weeks only,
1:07.8	May 20th through June 8th. Tickets on sale now at Broadway, sF.com.
1:10.5	From KQED. You're listening to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. Tonight, to commemorate Juneteenth, dozens of
1:16.9	theaters in the Bay Area and beyond are presenting Vincent Terrell Durham's play, polar bears,
1:21.9	black boys, and prairie-fringed orchids. It centers on a cocktail party hosted by a liberal
1:27.2	white couple for a Black Lives
1:28.8	Matter activist, his gay white lover, and the mother of a slain 12-year-old black boy, and it brings
1:34.0	in issues of climate change, gentrification, police violence, and racial identity. The Juneteenth
1:39.8	Theater Justice Project is leading this collaboration, and we're joined now by Aldo Billingsley.
1:45.0	He is Bay Area Theater.
1:47.0	He is a Bay Area Theater veteran professor of theater at Santa Clara University and
1:51.0	leader of the Juneteenth Theater Justice Project.
1:54.0	Thanks for joining us on Forum, Aldo Billingsley.
	...

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