Trezana Beverley and Mary Bacon to Star in Urban Stages' Radio Play ELEANOR AND ALICE

Urban Stages has announced Urban Stages' Women's Month selection, Eleanor and Alice by Ellen Abrams, performed as a radio play. The radio play will premiere on March 18 at 7:30 pm with a premiere night benefit exclusive to ticket holders (tickets available on urbanstages.org). The benefit will include a talkback with the cast, playwright, and director, as well as members of the Roosevelt family and other special guests. The benefit will also give ticket holders a first listen (before the general public) of the radio play itself. From March 19 to March 23, the radio play will be available admission-free (donations suggested) on urbanstages.org.

Ellen Abrams' play follows Eleanor and Alice Roosevelt---friends, cousins, and rivals---at eight crucial moments over the course of their lives. They feud, laugh, commiserate, and argue over their husbands, children, the nature of politics, and the state of the world. One a Democrat and one a Republican, throughout 63 years of meetings, they witness a changing world from their own unique vantage points as two of the most influential women of the 20th century. Eleanor and Alice, through their accomplishments, ultimately help build a foundation that benefits women in politics today.

Witnessing Eleanor and Alice's journey allows us to experience the political climate of the United States from 1904 to 1962 in a very intimate way---through a family with two first cousins of the same age coming from two opposing political ideologies, one a Democrat and one a Republican. Their conversations and arguments are certainly a reflection of our times.

Eleanor Roosevelt will be played by Tony Award winner Trezana Beverley (Broadway: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, My Sister, My Sister. Off Broadway: King Lear (as King Lear), Medea). Alice Roosevelt will be played by Drama Desk's Sam Norkin Award Winner, Mary Bacon (Coal Country, Nothing Gold Can Stay). The play will be directed by Frances Hill with sound direction by David Margolin Lawson, video design by Kim T. Sharp, and Vincent Scott as Associate Producer.

The benefit is exclusive to ticket-holders on March 18 at 7:30 pm will be an opening/premiere night event. It will include a special zoom talkback with Harold Holzer, Director of Hunter College's Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt III, Ellen Abrams (playwright), Trezana Beverley (Eleanor Roosevelt), Mary Bacon (Alice Roosevelt), and Frances Hill (director and founder/artistic director of Urban Stages. Benefit tickets will be $100 and tax-deductible. Proceeds will benefit arts and education via Urban Stages' Outreach Program. Outreach tours admission-free plays and workshops libraries throughout NYC in over 300 events in a typical year. Since March 2020, Outreach has provided educational arts programming to over 30,000 virtually (learn more at urbanstages.org)

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