OF MICE AND MEN to Run 11/9-28 at Bay Street Theater

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the seventh year of the Literature Live! program. Over the past six years, Literature Live! has served over 7,500 students and 53 schools. This year's Literature Live! presents Of Mice and Men written by Sag Harbor's very own Pulitzer Prize-winning author, John Steinbeck. For the second year in a row, Bay Street Theater is again offering the Free Student Ticket Initiative, which allows all students to attend the production at no cost. Literature Live! brings literature to life on stage for Long Island Schools providing common core aligned lessons and resources for the classroom before and after the show.

"I am delighted that we serve students from Wyandanch to Montauk and this year we have over 3,000 students and 25 schools that plan to attend," says Ava Locks, Director of Education for Bay Street Theater. "Space is limited but there are still a few slots available for schools that are interested in booking."

The production runs from November 9 - 28 with public performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 7 pm, matinees at 2 pm on Sunday, November 15 and Saturday, November 28 of Thanksgiving weekend.

In addition to the performances, audience members can begin to explore a more detailed history of Steinbeck in Sag Harbor and of conditions of migrant workers on the East End during the Great Depression through post-show talkbacks and Q&A sessions. For select performances, speakers from the Long Island Parent Center, John Jermain Library, and the International Society of Steinbeck Scholars will explore topics that include Steinbeck's writings, The Great Depression, and the acceptance of people with visible and invisible disabilities.

To contextualize the content, and as part of its mission, Bay Street Theater will collaborate with local organizations and artists to additionally enhance audience members' experience. In addition to the speakers, Bay Street Theater is partnering with The Bridgehampton Museum (The Bridgehampton Historical Society), who will provide historical artifacts that will anchor the exhibit's themes of farming and migrant workers on the East End. In addition, The Roger Memorial Library will provide historic audio and visual files (Talking Histories) of local farm families. Images and graphs will be displayed in order to illustrate the impact of the Great Depression both locally and globally. Canio's Books will provide an East End and Steinbeck centric presence in the lobby with merchandise for purchase.

In addition, the lobby will also include information about the theater production process by explaining the terminology and showing images and sketches from the rehearsal process through the show's opening. The seven year history of Literature Live! will be exhibited through pictures and a map of participating local and regional schools.

Bay Street and Sag Harbor have a long history with the Steinbecks. In 1953, the Steinbecks rented a house in Sag Harbor to escape the heat of New York. Seeking a weekend retreat from the city, in 1955, they returned to Sag Harbor and purchased a summer cottage overlooking Morris Cove. Steinbeck grew to love the area and for the rest of his life spent much of every summer and even long periods of the winter months at the cottage. Finding too many distractions while trying to write in the tiny house, in 1958 he constructed a six-sided cabin with views of the water all around. He placed a hand-lettered sign over the door inscribed "Joyous Gard" after Lancelot's castle. Here Steinbeck worked on many of his later books, including The Acts of King Arthur, The Winter of our Discontent, and Travels with Charley. The house is now owned by descendants of his late wife Elaine Steinbeck, who served as a trustee of the theater until her death in 2003. Bay Street Theater is proud to be home to the Elaine Steinbeck Stage, and host of the Steinbeck Celebration Weekend each May.

Speaker Information:

After select school and public performances Richard E. Hart, Ph.D. will be giving a talkback. He is a Cyrus H. Holley Professor of Applied Ethics and Philosophy Emeritus in the Humanities Division at Bloomfield College in Bloomfield, New Jersey and is currently Vice President for Academic Relations for the International Society of Steinbeck Scholars. He is on the Editorial Board of the Steinbeck Review, and was the keynote speaker in 2007 for the John Steinbeck Society of Japan. Also, Dr. Hart was an invited faculty member for an National Endowment for the Humanities, (NEH), sponsored Summer Institute on Steinbeck offered to high school teachers throughout the United States. Dr. Hart has written ten Steinbeck articles and book chapters in leading journals and book collections; and he has lectured on Steinbeck and philosophy at Universities and conferences in New York, Massachusetts, Idaho, California, and abroad in Hungary, Spain, Czech Republic, and Romania.

The Long Island Parent Center will provide speakers to work with student audiences in an informative Q&A exploring character education skills on tolerance, vocabulary and awareness for people with visible and invisible disabilities. The mission of the Long Island Parent Center is to provide parents of children with disabilities, in conjunction with the professionals who service their children, with information and resources necessary to promote meaningful involvement in their children's educational programs.

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is a year-round, not-for-profit professional theater and community cultural center which endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. We serve as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists.

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