Arts & Entertainment
This Week: Anna Deavere Smith's "This Ghost of Slavery"
The first public staged reading of This Ghost of Slavery: A Play of Past and Present, which was published in The Atlantic in 2023.
Anna Deavere Smith: This Ghost of Slavery
Sunday, October 27, 2024 at 3pm
Crowell Concert Hall
$20 general public; $15 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff/alumni, non-Wesleyan students; $8 Wesleyan students, youth under 18.
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Renowned playwright, actor, and educator Anna Deavere Smith, the Center for the Arts artist in residence for 2024–2025, presents the first public staged reading of This Ghost of Slavery: A Play of Past and Present, which was published in The Atlantic in 2023.
Co-produced with Long Wharf Theatre. Co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities.
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Presented as part of the University initiative Democracy 2024.The reading will feature a stellar cast, including Gbenga Akinnagbe (The Wire, The Deuce), Wynn Harmon (Live from Lincoln Center, Law & Order: SVU, Madam Secretary), Kai Heath (Great Performances, Law & Order, Much Ado About Nothing at The Public Theater), Ken Marks (The Wackness, Henry’s Crime, Side Effects), Jay O. Sanders (Kiss the Girls, The Day After Tomorrow, Edge of Darkness), and Godfrey Simmons, Jr. (Third Watch, Law & Order, Katrina).Also joining the cast are Oak Onaodowan, known for originating the roles of Hercules Mulligan and James Madison in Hamilton; Sojourner Brown, currently appearing in Hadestown; and Arjun Gupta, who previously starred in Nurse Jackie alongside Smith.
Additional cast members include Sharaé Moultrie (Girl From the North Country national tour) and Steve Routman (Killers of the Flower Moon), both seen in Long Wharf Theatre’s concert performance of Jelly’s Last Jam, and Jolie Cloutier, previously in Long Wharf Theatre’s staged reading of Flying Bird's Diary.
From Wesleyan University, Associate Professor of Theater, African American Studies, and English Rashida McMahon, along with students Connor Wrubel ’25 (a Film Studies and Theater major) and Raimi Bagwell ’26 (an African American Studies major), will also join the cast.The staged reading will be directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar and was cast by tbd casting co. Heath, Marks, and Sanders previously worked with Smith on an invitation-only reading of This Ghost of Slavery earlier this year. Kudtarkar previously directed a staged reading of The Elephant Is Very Like at Wesleyan in February, and a production of Queen at Long Wharf Theatre in 2022.
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