Irish Arts Center With Classical Theatre Of Harlem Presents THE CAMBRIA And FREDERICK DOUGLASS NOW 9/16-10/25

After a sold-out one-week only engagement last Spring, Donal O'Kelly's THE CAMBRIA returns to the Irish Arts Center to run in rep with Roger Guenveur Smith's FREDERICK DOUGLASS NOW. CAMBRIA/DOUGLASS begins previews on Wednesday, September 16 for a limited engagement through Sunday, October 25. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Friday at 8 PM, Saturday at 2 PM and 8 PM and Sunday at 3 PM and 7 PM (see below for rep performance breakdown). Opening Night is Wednesday, September 23 at 8 PM. Please note, on Sunday, October 11 only, the performance times are 1 PM and 5 PM. Tickets to a single performance are $50 ($42 for IAC and CTH Members). Tickets to a double performance (Saturday and Sunday only) are $75 ($65 for IAC and CTH Members). CAMBRIA/DOUGLASS takes place at the Irish Arts Center (553 West 51st Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues). Tickets can be purchased by calling SmartTix at 212-868-4444 or at www.smarttix.com. For more information, visit www.irishartscenter.org

In 1845, as a relatively unknown escaped slave, Frederick Douglass was forced to flee the United States after publishing his life story, A Narrative of the Life of an American Slave. With false papers - and a bounty on his head from enraged slaveholders - he boarded the Cunard Line paddle steamer The Cambria out of Boston bound for Ireland. He was greeted like a hero by the Irish people and spoke to mass meetings on platforms with Daniel O'Connell, the leading Irish politician of the day. THE CAMBRIA is the thrilling tale of this historic voyage written by Donal O'Kelly and starring Mr. O'Kelly and Sorcha Fox and directed by Raymond Keane.

Roger Guenveur Smith is FREDERICK DOUGLASS NOW, illuminating our present American moment with Douglass' ever-brilliant 19th century texts. The speeches, letters and editorials of the pioneering abolitionist and feminist are bookended by Smith with original narratives, fusing Douglass' era with our own. Smith's nationally acclaimed solo performance, most recently presented at the Kennedy Center, returns to New York after sold-out engagements at Aaron Davis Hall and La Mama, where it was originally commissioned. At the core of Smith's Douglass is the fugitive slave turned statesman, whose quest for an America free of racism, sexism, and economic deprivation is still, tragically, relevant.

THE CAMBRIA PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE Week 1 September 16 - 20 Wed 9/16 @ 8, Fri 9/18 @ 8, Sat 9/19 @ 8, Sun 9/20 @ 3. Week 2 September 22 - 27 Tue 9/22 @ 8, Thu 9/24 @ 8, Sat 9/26 @ 2, Sun 9/27 @ 7. Week 3 September 29 - October 4 Thu 10/1 @ 8, Fri 10/2 @ 8, Sat 10/3 @ 8, Sun 10/4 @ 3. Week 4 October 6 -11 Tue 10/6 @ 8, Thu 10/8 @ 8, Sat 10/10 @ 2, Sun 10/11 @ 5. Week 5 October 13 - 18 Wed 10/14 @ 8, Fri 10/16 @ 8, Sat 10/17 @ 8, Sun 10/18 @ 3. Week 6 October 20 - 25 Tue 10/20 @ 8, Thu 10/22 @ 8, Sat 10/24 @ 2, Sun 10/25 @ 7

FREDERICK DOUGLASS NOW PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE Week 1 September 16 - 20 Thu 9/17 @ 8, Sat 9/19 @ 2, Sun 9/20 @ 7. Week 2 September 22 - 27 Wed 9/23 @ 8, Fri 9/25 @ 8, Sat 9/26 @ 8, Sun 9/27 @ 3. Week 3 September 29 - October 4 Tue 9/29 @ 8, Wed 9/30 @ 8, Sat 10/3 @ 2, Sun 10/4 @ 7. Week 4 October 6 - 11 Wed 10/7 @ 8, Fri 10/9 @ 8, Sat 10/10 @ 8, Sun 10/11 @ 1. Week 5 October 13 - 18 Tue 10/13 @ 8, Thu 10/15 @ 8, Sat 10/17 @ 2, Sun 10/17 @ 7. Week 6 October 20 - 25 Wed 10/21 @ 8, Fri 10/23 @ 8, Sat 10/24 @ 8, Sun 10/25 @ 3.

Roger Guenveur Smith adapted his Obie Award-winning A Huey P. Newton Story into a Peabody Award-winning telefilm, directed by his longtime colleague, Spike Lee. For Mr. Lee's Do the Right Thing, he created the stuttering hero, Smiley. His many screen credits also include American Gangster, for which he was nominated for the Screen Actors' Guild Award, Fighting for director Dito Montiel and Steven Soderbergh's innovative HBO series "K. Street." For the international stage Roger has also created and performed Iceland, Who Killed Bob Marley?. Christopher Columbus 1992, Two Fires, In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Watts Towers Project, and, with Mark Broyard, Inside the Creole Mafia, distinguished by LA Weekly as Production of the Year in both its premiere and revival seasons. He directed Culture Clash in their Bessie Award-winning Radio Mambo and was recently featured in Classical Theatre of Harlem's Three Sisters at Harlem Stage Gatehouse. Smith's studies at Occidental College and Yale University (where he served as research assistant at the Frederick Douglass Papers) provoked an early interest in Douglass, which has been continuously refined and reimagined, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Donal O'Kelly is a writer and actor. His much-traveled solo plays include the award-winning CATALPA (Edinburgh Fringe First, London Time Out Critics' Choice, Best Event Melbourne International Festival), Bat The Father Rabbit The Son (Best Writer and Best Actor nominations Irish Theatre Awards), and Jimmy Joyced! (Best Actor nomination Irish Theatre Awards). His play The Cambria, about Frederick Douglas' voyage to Ireland in 1845, performed with Sorcha Fox, toured Ireland, as well as playing the UK and Los Angeles. Vive La, a 1798 spy story mummer play, toured Ireland in 2007, and was revived in the Project in 2008. Running Beast, his music-theatre piece with music by Michael Holohan, has toured Europe since its premiere in September 2007. Other plays include The Dogs (Rough Magic); Hughie On The Wires, Trickledown Town, The Business Of Blood, Farawayan (all Calypso); Asylum! Asylum! (Peacock, Traverse Edinburgh, Ottawa and Boston); Mamie Sighs, Judas Of The Gallarus (Peacock); and The Hand (Dublin Theatre Festival). He has twice been awarded an Irish Arts Council literature bursary, and in 1999 was awarded the Irish American Cultural Institute Butler Literary Award. As an actor, his film roles include leading roles in Roddy Doyle's The Van and in the acclaimed bilingual film Kings, Brainer in Spin The Bottle and Funny Face in Conor McPherson's I Went Down. On stage, he has played Lincoln Center with Beckett's Act Without Words, Toronto Winter Garden as Lucky in Waiting For Godot, Joxer in the Abbey Theatre's Juno And The Paycock and Sean O'Casey in Colm Toibin's Beauty In A Broken Place at the Peacock. He is also an associate director of the peace and justice organization Afri.

 

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