The Representatives to Stage Reading of PRIVATE MANNING GOES TO WASHINGTON

The Representatives are presenting a staged-reading of "Private Manning Goes To Washington" by Stan Richardson for the students of The New School on Friday, October 28th from 3-5pm at Wollman Hall, 65 West 11th Street 5th Floor.

There will be a Talk Back with Cecilia Rubino, Assistant Professor of Theater and Coordinator of the Theater Program @ Lang College/The New School. The event has been planned by Caitrin Sneed, Director of Outreach for The Representatives and New School alumni.

Professor Rubino took some students to Edinburgh this summer to the Festival and saw the show there. This began the talk about The Representatives collaborating with The New School more, especially because of their history and current relationship to activism. This special reading is the kick off of that collaboration.

Cecilia Rubino stated "The Representatives production of 'Private Manning Goes to Washington' was an absolute highlight at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer! Brilliantly written by Stan Richardson and compellingly performed by Matt Steiner and the company, 'Private Manning' is an important, imaginative new work that takes on the urgent issue of the US government's crack down on whistle blowers and its growing cyber security apparatus. The Representatives advocate through this provocative, surprising new play for Private Chelsea Manning's immediate release! It is political theater at its best! The piece activated my students to take part in a national letter writing campaign on Chelsea Manning's behalf when she took on a hunger strike to protest her continued imprisonment. We are delighted to welcome the Representatives to The New School to perform a staged reading of this important new work and to share thoughts about the creation of this timely piece through a talk back after the performance."

The play, imagines a secret meeting between Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning and US President Barack Obama. In December 2010, before his federal indictment for data theft, internet activist Aaron Swartz requested information from the American government regarding the treatment of Chelsea Manning, the soldier who would be found guilty of leaking classified documents to Wikileaks. Playwright Richardson uses this fact as a springboard to imagine Swartz creating a piece of theatrical activism intended to free Manning. Private Manning Goes To Washington is a timely and trenchant new play about the power of theatre to create empathy, understanding, and justice in an age of virtual realities and manufactured truths.

The world premiere of a newly revised and expanded production of "Private Manning Goes To Washington" by Stan Richardson will begin performances Off Broadway this December. The exact dates, times and company to be announced soon. This timely play will be performed at the Studio at 345 (345 West 13th Street - west of 8th Avenue) NYC. The production will be co-directed by Stan Richardson & Matt Steiner, with design by Paul Hudson and dramaturgy by Jordan Schildcrout.

The Representatives is the collaboration of playwright Stan Richardson and actor Matt Steiner. Since 2012, they have presented 15 original works, ranging from their signature apartment plays to larger site-specific productions; on subject matter ranging from the global financial crisis to mass shootings in the US. They have been performed in apartments, churches, restaurants and other alternative venues as well as in theatres and festivals. TDF Stages dubbed The Representatives "an underground theatre sensation" and they were also recognized as one of the "Top 10 Theater Experiences" by BroadwayWorld.com. Their production of Stan Richardson's VERITAS, the tragic true story of a secret gay witch-­hunt at Harvard in 1920, was featured in the American Theatre Magazine's "Deaf Talent, Seen and Heard" and was praised as "agonizingly vivid" by The New York Times.

For more information on "Private Manning Goes To Washington, visit therepresentatives.org.