Literature to Life
Imagine seeing one of your favorite books brought to life. That transformation is created with each performance of the Literature to Life series. The process combines a professional actor and verbatim selections from a significant American literary work. The result is an intimate and emotionally-charged performance.
Literature to Life was created for middle- and high-school students by The American Place Theatre in New York City. Working in collaboration with them, The Bushnell selected five shows from the roster and packaged them with additional material in a new series for adults. The 2007-2008 season will feature:
Black Boy, from the memoir by Richard Wright (October 15)
Told with force and honesty, Richard Wright examines the discrimination and brutality of growing up in the Jim Crow South from 1912 to 1927. Just when the impulse to dream has been beaten out of him, he discovers books. From them he finds a new sense of life itself, one that finally satisfies his gnawing hunger.
The Glass Castle, from the memoir by Jeanette Walls (November 12)
Walls reveals a chilling, compelling story of desperate poverty, childhood neglect and the strength of family ties - for both good and ill. Her father is an alcoholic and would-be inventor. Her mother spends money on her own art supplies instead of food for the family. In the end, Walls carves out a successful life on her own terms, acknowledging her parents' legacy of creativity.
Growing Up A Slave, from oral histories (March 31)
Derived from slave narratives transcribed by the Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s, three characters share their dramatic accounts of slave life, their food and eating habits, clothing, religious and superstitious beliefs, music, the auction block and the dire consequences faced by runaways. Throughout the accounts, the spiritual resources of these oppressed people pulsate. The human spirit triumphs.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, from the memoir by Harriet A. Jacobs (May 5)
"No animal ever watched its prey more narrowly than he watched me." Long ignored because it failed to meet the standards of the male slave narrative, Harriet Jacobs, under the pseudonym Linda Brent, reveals a personal story of the physical abuse and psychological exploitation of women slaves and the support of white women who believed in the greater sisterhood of all.
The Things They Carried, from fiction based on fact by Tim O'Brien (June 23)
Matches and morphine. M&Ms and brandy. Guilt and fear. These are among the items carried by soldiers in the Vietnam War. This gripping blend of fact and fiction unfolds through the eyes of a character also named Tim O'Brien, who first battles his conscience, with the Canadian border just a few yards away.
The Literature to Life series for adults took place on Monday evenings during the 2007-2008 season. The series was sponsored by the SBM Charitable Foundation.
The roster for the 2008-2009 season will be announced soon.