Literary Cleveland, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help create and nurture a vibrant literary arts community in Northeast Ohio, has announced the program for its upcoming staged reading at Cleveland State University’s Student Center Ballroom during this year’s Cleveland Humanities Festival on Saturday March 17th and Sunday March 18th at 7:00 p.m.
The hour-long performance, titled I Will Sing for You: Writers on Health, features original work by Northeast Ohio writers Nicholas Cohen, Diane Ferri, Aubrey Hirsch, Ray McNiece, Darlene Montonaro, Robin Pease, Mimi Plevin-Foust, Susan Rakow, Jane Richmond, Elaine Schleiffer, Karen Schubert, Jill Sell, Mary Weems, and Joe Kapitan.
Lit Cleveland’s call for submissions earlier this year garnered over 180 poems, stories, and plays from writers throughout Northeast Ohio. The moving, often funny works explore issues such as cancer, addiction, mental health, race and poverty, and the inequities in our current health care system.
Diane Ferri’s moving essay “I Will Sing for You” recounts her final memories of time spent with her aging mother. Philip Metres reflects on finding peace in the midst of a painful concussion as well as the current presidential administration in his essay “Refuge.” Playwright Mary Weems encounters the tragedy of addiction in her piece “Pill/Box.” Ray McNiece playfully taunts death in his poem “The Bone Orchard Conga,” while Joe Kaptian humorously highlights the hypocrisy of health care coverage in his one act play “Minimal Coverage.”
“Reading the selected pieces, it’s striking how relevant, and often how American, these stories are,” said Director Dale Heinen, who will work alongside professional actors to adapt these written pieces for the stage. “It’s a fun, intriguing challenge to craft performances from diverse forms of writing like poetry and essay, and I look forward to sharing our discoveries with festival audiences.”
“We’re thrilled to have worked out a program for this year’s performance, and are truly grateful to have received such outstanding, powerful work from so many people living in this region,” added Lee Chilcote, Executive Director of Lit Cleveland. “We’d like to thank everyone who went out on a limb to share their stories with us, and look forward to what we hope will be a powerful and insightful performance.”
In contrast to last year’s Crossing Borders: Immigrant Narratives performance, which featured a different program each evening, I Will Sing for You will showcase the same work both nights. A reception with the actors and writers will follow each performance. Register in advance for the event at Cleveland Humanities Festival – Staged Readings.
This program is made possible with the support of the George Gund Foundation, the Baker Nord Center for the Humanities, Cleveland Humanities Festival, and Cleveland State University.
Literary Cleveland’s mission is to help nurture and create a vibrant literary arts community in Northeast Ohio. Find out more online at Literary Cleveland.
Dale Heinen is a director/dramaturge focused on new work. She has worked on new plays in Cleveland, Chicago, London, New York, Dublin, Tokyo and Brazil. Her work has been recognized by the Jeff Awards and by the After Dark Awards (Chicago), and she was the recipient of the Arches Award for Directors (Glasgow). Since returning to her hometown of Cleveland in 2014, she has directed new work at Cleveland Public Theatre, Lake Erie College, Dobama Theatre and Playwrights’ Local, where she is a company member. Dale teaches at John Carroll University and has a BA from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and an MFA in theatre directing from Middlesex University (London). In 2015, Dale co-founded BorderLight: the Festival of International Theatre, Cleveland, which aims to present visionary international theatre and build cross-cultural understanding. Border Light is expected to launch in late summer 2019 in downtown Cleveland.
