Theatrical Outfit & Georgia State Announce Southern Writers Onstage 2012

Theatrical Outfit and Georgia State University have announced the second annual Southern Writers Onstage series, organized by Pearl McHaney. Presented four Mondays at 7:30pm February through April at the Balzer Theater at Herren’s. Featuring work by Southern writers Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston and William Faulkner and original music. Performers include the New Agrarians, E. Roger Mitchell, Kim Brockington and John Maxwell.

WHAT: Southern Writers Onstage, a collaborative effort of Theatrical Outfit and Georgia State University’s English, Communications, and Women Studies departments

WHERE: Theatrical Outfit
The Balzer Theater at Herren’s
84 Luckie Street
Atlanta, GA 30303

WHEN: Mondays, 7:30: February 6, February 20, March 12, April 23, 2012 Performances are open to the public.
February 6: New Agrarians
February 20: Richard Wright
March 12: Zora Neale Hurston
April 23: William Faulkner

TICKETS: Free to the public. Call the Box Office with questions or concerns: 678.528.1500; www.theatricaloutfit.org.

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCES:
Southern Writers Onstage 2012 presents the lives and work of Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor and other southern writers to the public through a variety of presentations: lecture, music, readings, dramatizations, discussions. Each performance will end in a talkback with Pearl McHaney, associate dean of fine arts for the College of Arts and Sciences at GSU.

First, the New Agrarians will perform songs that are based on Southern literature, history and culture on February 6. Then E. Roger Mitchell will discuss Richard Wright, his life and writing and present “A Dramatic Reading from Black Boy” on February 20. On March 12, stage, TV and film actress Kim Brockington will present her one-woman show Zora! created from Laurence Holder’s biography of Hurtson. Then on April 23, John Maxwell, actor, writer, and assistant professor of theater at Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi presents his play ’Oh, Mr. Faulkner, Do You Write?’ that he has performed worldwide, including to the Faulkner family and to the Nobel Laureates of Literature.

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS:

Pearl McHaney is the associate dean of fine arts for the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University. She is the creator and editor of Eudora Welty as Photographer, winner of the Eudora Welty Prize.

The New Agrarians are comprised of musicians and songwriters Kate Campbell, Tom Kimmel, and Pierce Pettis. Campbell has recorded more than twelve albums since 1995, and participated in the Eudora Welty Centennial in Concert. Kimmel has been writing for musicians such as Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, Randy Travis, and Nanci Griffith since the 1980s and has seven solo albums. Pettis’ songs have been recorded by Joan Baez, Art Garfunkel, Garth Brooks, and Dar Williams, and he has recorded more than a dozen solo albums.

E. Roger Mitchell is a highly-regarded stage, film, and TV actor of over thirty screen productions. He has appeared on Atlanta stages in dozens of plays including Miss Evers’ Boys, Flyin’ West, Gem of the Ocean, and Sunset Limited.

Kim Brockington is a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She researched the life and writings of Zora Neale Hurston working with Hurston biographers and scholars to create Zora! that she performed at the American Place Theater and the Kennedy Center, and then the documentary PBS film Zora, Jump at the Sun.

John Maxwell is assistant professor of theater and theater history at Belhaven College, Jackson, Mississippi. Maxwell worked with the Faulkner heirs and with humanities and Faulkner scholars to write his play from Faulkner’s words, drawing from letters, essays, novels.