Our Stage / Our Voices to Present Reading of OUTRAGE: TERROR IN SPRINGFIELD 1908 Next Weekend

On November 11, audiences will be treated to developing work by local playwrights.  Staged readings give an early audience the opportunity to experience plays-in-progress.  Actors will read all the roles and stage directions read aloud will help set the scenes for the audience.

The main event is a staged reading of Tim Crawford's play Outraged: Terror in Springfield 1908.  Tim, an African American playwright, actor, and director is the current Our Stage / Our Voices Artist-in-Residence at the UIS Performing Arts Center.

In addition to using his residency to write a play about the 1908 race riots, he has also been using his vast experience as a playwright to help develop a culture of local playwrights.  This summer, he taught a multi-session Writing for the Stage Workshop that resulted in participants writing their own 10-minute plays.  Three plays written and submitted by participants have been selected to be read as openers to Tim's play on November 11. 

Those plays are:

Are You...Really Here? by Linda Castor

Petrichorigami by Sam Steere

Lost Cause by Stephen Sykes

"Outraged: Terror in Springfield 1908 is a family drama that takes place against the backdrop of the 1908 Springfield race riots, a multi-day attack that terrorized the Black citizens of Springfield and gave rise to the formation of the NAACP. I'm excited to share this play with local folks who have varying depths of knowledge about this historical event at a time when there is so much public interest in what happened here in 1908. Being a play-in-progress, the role of the audience is crucial and the evening of November 11 is structured to include your feedback," said Tim Crawford, Our Stage / Our Voices Artist-in-Residence.

"The UIS Performing Arts Center plans to present a more fully-produced presentation of Tim's play in February 2024.  It will be so exciting to use what we experience at the November event to help inform a weekend of performances in February," said Artistic Programs Director Carly Shank.

For more information, visit the link below.

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