Month: February 2010

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L.A. Theatre Works, Susan Albert Loewenberg, Producing Director, presents “The RFK Project”

The 60’s in America was a decade of heroes, violence, love, death, progress, and disappointment. “The RFK Project” chronicles Robert Kennedy’s dramatic transformation from discomfort with and indifference towards the Civil Rights movement to a champion and crusader. This docudrama brings to life the compelling and dramatic illumination of this crucial decade, enabling a new generation to hear the words, feel the tension and explore the issues that still resonate today.

The LA Theatre Works/RFK Project is a commission led by the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center Dame and co-commissioned by the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, Stanford Lively Arts at Stanford University, and the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond.

Tuesday, February 23
Concert Hall 7:30 PM
$35, $25, $15, Five College/GCC/STCC students and Youth 17 and under: $15

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Our Moment: RFK and Our Shared Civil Rights Legacy

Tuesday, February 16
First Churches, Northampton 7:00 pm
Free and Open to the Public.

In anticipation of the L.A. Theatre Works’ Tuesday, February 23 presentation of RFK: The Journey to Justice, the Fine Arts Center is hosting a public forum during which panelists will reflect on the role that RFK played in the Civil Rights movement, and on the continuting legacy of his involvement. Please join us for this community event featuring a non-traditional panel of speakers and performers who will touch on Robert F. Kennedy’s political legacy.

To date, panelists include Shahid Buttar, executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the People’s Campaign for the Constitution, Adrienne Williams, Director of RFK’s Child Welfare Services, Dr. Arlene Rodriguez, Dean of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences at Springfield Technical Community College, and Phil Johnston, founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Action Corps. Moderator will be local attorney Bill Newman, who practices Civil Litigation; Civil Rights; Labor and Employment, and Criminal Law, and is also director of the Western Regional Office of American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. The panelists will speak to the historical role of the arts in social change and the civil rights issues that we face today—another pivotal moment of American history.

Presented by the UMass Fine Arts Center in collaboration with The RFK Children’s Action Corps.

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American Experience: RFK – A Film Documentary Directed by David Grubin

Thursday, February 18

Augusta Savage Gallery from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Free and open to the public.

In conjunction with the L.A. Theatre Works’ Tuesday, February 23 presentation of RFK: The Journey to Justice, the Fine Arts Center will be screening a documentary film on Thursday, February 18 at the Augusta Savage Gallery in New Africa House.

Utilizing interviews and archival footage, this film offers an inspiring portrait of the influential leader—from his visionary politics to his interpersonal relationships and the tragic 1968 assassination that cut short a brilliant life and promising career. Featuring extensive interviews with family members, friends, journalists, Washington insiders, and civil rights activists, American Experience: RFK chronicles the pivotal role Robert Kennedy played in many of the major events of the 1960s—the Cuban Missile Crisis, the civil rights movement, and the war in Vietnam.

The film looks closely at Kennedy’s complicated relationships with some of the leading figures of his day, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lyndon B. Johnson, among them. And it reveals much about his personal world, his role as family mediator, and his overwhelming grief and guilt following the assassination of his older brother. Produced by David Grubin, the award-winning director of FDR and LBJ.