Plays & Players to Present VOICES OF A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES and HOLD THESE TRUTHS

Between the national pride celebrated on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the oft overlooked commemoration of Executive Order 9066 to intern Japanese-Americans in the 1940s, Plays & Players presents two theatrical events that remind us of the struggles we have overcome and the steps yet to be taken: Voices of a People's History of the United States and Hold These Truths.

Excerpted from the book edited by Anthony Arnove and famed historian Howard Zinn that has been mounted in performances across the United States for over 10 years, Voices runs 90 minutes, January 29-31 at 8pm at Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place, on the Mainstage. Voices will also be presented in a modified 75 minute version for school groups on Jan. 29 & 30 at 10:30am.

Written by Los Angeles based playwright Jeanne Sakata and performed by local performance artist Makoto Hirano, the Philadelphia premiere of Hold These Truths runs 90 minutes with performances February 12-March 1, Wed-Thurs @7, Fri @8, Sat @2 & 8 (no 2pm Feb. 14), and Sun @3 in the Third Floor Skinner Studio.

Tickets cost $15-$30 and are available online at www.playsandplayers.org or by calling 866-811-4111.

Through speeches, songs and more, Voices of a People's History of the United States brings passion and power to the words that helped end slavery and Jim Crow, fought war and genocide, advanced gay and women's rights, and msingularly defined the American spirit. A large cast brings to life more than 400 years of activists from Sojourner Truth to Helen Keller to Martin King Jr.

Voices of a People's History of the United States will be directed by Iron Age Theater Company's Artistic Director John Doyle and features one of Howard Zinn's favorite actors, Bob Weick, as Howard Zinn. A popular Philadelphia actor, Weick has toured Zinn's Marx in Soho across the United States for a remarkable 271 performances over 10 years. Voices features words spoken by such notable figures as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Helen Keller, Cesar Chavez, Eugene Debs, and Sojourner Truth, but also introduces us to powerful speakers lost in American history, such as David Walker, an African-American abolitionist and anti-slavery activist, who, in 1829, published An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, a call for black unity and self-help in the fight against oppression and injustice, and Mary Elizabeth Lease who declared that "Wall Street owns the country" in 1890, words that resonate too profoundly 125 years later. The evening is rounded out with contemporary voices, such as Kevin Tillman, the brother of former NFL player and army ranger Pat Tillman who spoke out against the Iraq War and the cover up of his brother's death in Afghanistan, and the young Amber Kudla, whose 2013 valedictorian graduation speech from North Tonawanda High School in New York, protested the negative impact of Common Core standardized testing and the disarray of the American education system.

Hold These Truths tells a story, buried by history, of one American's attempt to reconcile his love for a country that labeled him a second class citizen. Gordon Hirabayashi's real life 50-year journey brings us the astonishing facts of Japanese Internment, the US government's orders to forcibly remove and mass incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast during WWII, through the eyes of a Quaker college student who was simply looking for love and the American Dream. When confronted with the ultimate challenge to his freedom, Gordon embarks on a truly profound and brave defense of our Constitution, taking him on a wild adventure of discovering his Quaker faith, hitchhiking to prison, and ultimately, challenging the law in the highest court in the land... twice. Join Philadelphia actor Makoto Hirano as he gives voice to over thirty characters in this one-man tour-de-force regional premiere, and celebrate the triumph of the power one person has to change a nation.

Hold These Truths, directed by Plays & Players Producing Artistic Director Daniel Student (The Disappearing Quarterback, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Joe Turner's Come and Gone), celebrates the triumph of the power one person has to change a nation. The production will be set designed by Colin McIlvaine (MFA, Set Design, Temple University), light designed by 2014 Barrymore nominee Andrew Cowles, costume designed by Rachel Coon (MFA, Set Design, Temple University), and sound designed by Lucas Fendlay (BFA, Art Institute of Philadelphia.) In 2007, Hold These Truths had its critically acclaimed world premiere in 2007 at East West Players, co-presented by the Japanese American National Museum, UCLA Department of Asian American Studies, and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. In its New York premiere with the Epic Theatre Ensemble in October 2012, featuring Joel de la Fuente and directed by Lisa Rothe, Hold These Truths opened to unanimous rave reviews from The New Yorker, The Washington Post/API, and many other critics, garnering a 2013 Drama Desk Award Nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance.

The Philadelphia premiere of Hold These Truths will be Barrymore eligible with an opening night and press night performance on February 14 at 8pm. Louis Bluver will be the Honorary Producer of the production.

Furthermore, Plays & Players is proud this production is supported by the Philadelphia Asian Theater Project (PATP), a group of Philadelphia theaters committed to cross-promotion, artist development, audience development, and shared resources, for work that raises the level of Asian American theater in our area. We are joined by InterAct Theatre Company, The Wilma Theater, Lantern Theater Company, People's Light, Azuka Theatre, EgoPo Classic Theater, Kaleid Theatre, and the new Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists (PAPA), in a co-operative effort organized by Rick Shiomi, a resident artist at InterAct Theatre through funding from the Doris Duke Foundation's Building Demand for the Arts program.

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