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Keegan is teaming up with students from Arlington's H-B Woodlawn Program to present Week 18 of 365 Days/365 Plays
Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’ play cycle - Community Outreach Production - OPENS March 12!
The Keegan Theatre is teaming up with students from H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program of Arlington Public Schools to present Week 18 of Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’ play cycle, ’365 Days/365 Plays,’ a national festival taking place in 14 major cities and communities across the United States.
H-B Woodlawn students will direct and perform the seven plays of Week 18, under the guidance umbrella of The Keegan Theatre. Performances will be free to the public and held at 7:30 PM on four evenings: Monday, March 12; Wednesday, March 14; Thursday, March 15; and Friday, March 16, 2007. Although the seven world premieres are being performed consecutively in several jurisdictions throughout the country, in Washington during Week 18, these historic Parks’ plays will be managed, directed, and performed exclusively by H-B Woodlawn students.
As leaders in autonomy-focused education at the middle and high school levels, H-B Woodlawn students are uniquely qualified to take on a project such as this, which juggles relatively mature content and existential ideas. H-B Woodlawn students and their Keegan Theatre company-member mentors are excited to be part of such a unique performance concept, which has as its ideal that every day has its own drama.
Keegan company member and student mentor Mike Innocenti, who recently appeared as Mickybo in Keegan Theatre New Island Project’s Mojo Mickybo at Arlington’s Theatre on the Run, said, "Every day there’s a little drama as you go about your way. This world premiere play cycle is a unique opportunity and will be even more so coming through the unique eyes of students in their various adolescent situations. That to me is the uniqueness of the H-B presentation.”
The Keegan Theatre has a long history of working with young people in community outreach programs. The youth group at Mount Olivet United Methodist Church in Arlington, whose annual Keegan-directed plays have been raising funds for Habitat for Humanity projects each summer for over a decade, closed their three-week run of Charley’s Aunt at the end of February. Among the cast members was Greg Benson, a senior and the student artistic director at H-B Woodlawn this year who has been the H-B student liaison with Keegan in this effort.
Another Keegan outreach program, Chalice Theatre at Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, an intergenerational group that has been collaborating with Keegan since 1997 in putting on Broadway-style musicals, will open a three-week run of Anything Goes on March 9. Keegan Producing Artistic Director Mark A. Rhea directed both Charley’s Aunt and Anything Goes this year.
Rhea has worked for years with local youth, providing opportunities, training and direction to many children and teens. A case in point is Joe Baker, another Keegan company member who is working with the H-B students. Baker, who recently appeared at Church Street Theater as Prince Ferdinand in Keegan’s ‘Shakespeare in Washington’ festival presentation of The Tempest and last season became the youngest recipient ever to receive a Mary Goldwater Theatre Lobby Award for Acting, is not only a graduate of H-B Woodlawn, but has also had the benefit of being coached, directed and inspired by Rhea for over a decade.
"Participating in the ‘365 Days/365 Plays’ is a wonderful opportunity", Rhea said, "and we are always pleased to have a hand in enabling young people to experience the creative thought processes of how to put on a play. This is especially true for a series of plays that has never been publicly performed before." 
WHAT:
The Keegan Theatre teams up with H-B Woodlawn Students to present
Week 18 of Suzan-Lori Parks’ ‘365 Days/365 Plays’
WHEN:
WHERE:
The Black Box Theatre at H-B Woodlawn
4100 Vacation Lane, Arlington, VA 22207
WHO:
Directors/Actors: Ashleigh Brown, Peter Causey, T.D. Crowley, Montana Debor, Graham Hooper, Mahala B. Mitchell, Olivia Myers, Christopher Oxenford, Samantha Sheahan, Miranda Webster, Sabrina Zeile
Actors: Pria Barua, Greg Benson, Mark Guthrie, Taylor HennigerRyan Lee, Tom Moran, Matt Welborn
Musical Accompaniment: Carl Holmquist
Technical Crew: Michael Gibbs, Allison Miller
’365 Days/365 Plays’-Week 18 at H-B Woodlawn Black Box Theatre-Performance Calendar
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Monday
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Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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03/13 dark
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