RMTC to introduce Human Rights New Works Festival
Courtesy artsBHAM.com
From March 15-18, Red Mountain Theatre Company will present its inaugural Human Rights New Works Festival at RMTC Cabaret Theatre. The event will include two performances of Kenneth Jones’s 2015 play “Alabama Story” and original works about civil rights and acceptance selected from a nationwide call for submissions.
The idea for the festival came about in 2013, when RMTC Executive Director Keith Cromwell was asked to join a team that was planning commemorative events around the civil rights movement’s 50th anniversary.
“In that time, I had the privilege of going to Disney Imagineering on two separate occasions,” he said. “It was there in some remarkable conversations that I heard a phrase that became emblazoned on my heart: ‘How can we reclaim Birmingham’s rightful place as the epicenter where international consciousness is shifted towards human and civil rights?’ That has become my mantra and a driving force behind the art I am most interested in creating.”
Cromwell believes in the power of live theater to address challenging topics and unite people with differing views.
“When we come together and sit in a dark theater, all of our differences seem to disappear in the consumption of this common experience,” he said. “We become somehow neutralized as simply humans. Then, there is this miraculous moment where we are simply able to communicate with each other as humans, even if we disagree.”
The festival’s production of “Alabama Story” will be the play’s premiere in the state. The work takes its starting point from the 1959 controversy surrounding the inclusion of Garth Williams’ children’s book, “The Rabbits’ Wedding,” in the Alabama public library system. At the time, some alleged that the illustrated story, designed for ages 3-7, contained a hidden message about racial integration in its plot about the marriage of black rabbit and white rabbit.
“When I first read about ‘Alabama Story,’ I thought, ‘Why in the world have I not heard about this?’” Cromwell said. “So I reached out to the author and we became fast friends. It soon became clear that the show would find its way to our stage.”
Original works in the festival will tackle topics from autism to the 2015 Charleston church shooting and will be performed as staged readings.
“In the early stages of creating, writers need to hear their work and there are not a lot of opportunities for that to happen,” Cromwell says. “I hope this festival serves as an opportunity for writers to find an incubator, a creative sandbox where their work can be nurtured and then performed at a vast array of other theaters around the world.”
“I am passionate about supporting new voices in the theater — writers, composers and lyricists,” he adds. “The library of theater is finite in some ways unless we support new voices.”
Cromwell also decided he would like to include panel discussions following the staged readings. “This is one of the most exciting aspects of the festival to me,” he says. “It’s an opportunity to watch a piece of theater that inspires some emotion and then be allowed to have a discussion about it.”
The Human Rights New Works Festival is part of a broader, ongoing series of events celebrating Alabama’s bicentennial as a state.
“Whenever I participate in any kind of a celebration, I always look at an opportunity to create something sustainable — thus the idea of an annual festival around human and civil rights,” Cromwell says. “I hope to join forces with other agencies in the community to create multiple annual events that lead to Birmingham becoming a destination point for those wishing to further the discussion around human and civil rights.”
Festival schedule
All events held at the RMTC Cabaret Theatre, 301 19th St. S., Birmingham 35203
Tickets and more details, such as parental advisories, at rmtchumanrights.org
Thursday, March 15
7:30 p.m.: “Alabama Story”
Post-show moderated talkback with writers, directors, and actors
Friday, March 16
7:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.: Writers roundtable
8:30 p.m.: “The Ballad of Klook & Vinette”
Saturday, March 17
1 p.m.-3:30 p.m.: “Everything That’s Beautiful”
4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. “Mother Emanuel”
8:30 p.m. “Sam’s Room”
Sunday, March 18
2 p.m.: “Alabama Story”
Post-show talkback with writers, directors, and actors
Closing remarks