New Perspectives Theatre Company Presents SLAVES IN ALGIERS

On Her Shoulders will present a virtual reading of Slaves in Algiers (1794) by Susannah Haswell Rowson, directed by Melody Brooks, via NPTC's YouTube Channel: NewPerspectivesTC. The script has been newly adapted by Jennifer Rowland who also provides dramaturgy via The Play in Context, which situates the script in its historical time and place.

The broadcast begins at 2:00pm on Saturday, April 10 and will be available through midnight on April 14, 2021. Admission is by Donation.

Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/145339064053

Susannah Haswell Rowson (1762 -1824) was a British-American novelist, poet, playwright, religious writer, actor, and educator. Rowson's 1791 novel Charlotte Temple was the most popular best-seller in American literature until Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was published in 1852. She was an ardent supporter of female education, opening Mrs. Rowson's Academy for Young Ladies in Boston in 1797 and managing the school until 1822. Rowson is considered the first woman geographer, authoring the first American textbook on the subject, Rowson's Abridgement of Universal Geography in 1805. The book focuses on human geography, not maps, and includes information on the position of women, the cultural, religious, financial and social structure of different continents and in particular, the impact of the 'barbarous, degrading traffic' of slavery. She also wrote a textbook for younger students: First Steps in Geography.

Rowson left the U.S. in 1778 when her British military father was sent back to England as part of a prisoner exchange. There, she married her husband William, whose family dabbled in theatrics. They made it their full-time career when other businesses failed, and were recruited to come to Philadelphia in 1793 as part of the company that would become the Chestnut Theatre in Philadephia. In addition to acting in more than 57 roles in two seasons, Rowson wrote five plays between 1794 and 1796, all produced in Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Written in the infant years of a new nation and arguing for the equality of women within its borders, Rowson's first play is a deceptively simplistic story of America's first "hostage crisis", the kidnapping of U.S. sailors and civilians by North African pirates. Rather than treat the subject as a tragedy, as her first novel was, Slaves in Algiers is a comic operetta in which Rowson argues for the public and political, rather than private and domestic, role of women. In the play, a group of Americans enslaved by Barbary Pirates triumph over their captors, led by the indomitable Rebecca, who wields the twin ideals of "virtue" and "liberty" as her weapons. Rowson, who demonstrated her own talents by both writing and performing in her popular play, came back on stage to speak its epilogue, taunting the audience with the idea of female superiority:

Melody Brooks (Director) is an award-winning producer/director, founder and Artistic Director of NPTC. Brooks leads NPTC's Women's Work Project, which develops short and full-length plays by 12-16 members per year, and produces ON HER SHOULDERS, serving as a regular Director/Dramaturg for the program. She has developed and directed numerous award-winning and acclaimed original and classic plays for NPTC and other companies. Brooks was honored in 2018 as a Trailblazing Woman of Theatre for Artistry & Vision by RhythmColor Associates, received the "Spirit of Hope Award" in 2015 from Speranza Theatre Company for her support of women theatre artists for more than 25 years, and was named a "Person of the Year" by NYTheatre.com as a co-founder of 50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists. She is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women, and is currently Executive Producer of the LPTW Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award Program.

JENNIFER ROWLAND (Adaptation/Dramaturg) is a native San Franciscan who landed in Los Angeles by way of the East Coast. Her plays have been produced and/or developed at Skylight Theater, Pacific Resident Theatre, Antaeus Theatre Company, The Road Theatre, Rogue Machine as well as at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Jennifer is an alumnus of Harvard College and American Conservatory Theatre's Young Conservatory in San Francisco. Her play Jamal (Ditmas Park) was named a semi-finalist in the Garry Marshall New Works Festival, 2020. Recent projects include Still Waiting which played around West Hollywood as part of the virtual play series "While You Wait", as well as the audio play, The Changeling and an adaptation of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. She is a member of New Perspectives' Women's Work LAB.

Teresa Lotz (Music Consultant/Composer) (she/they) is an award-winning playwright/composer-lyricist whose work includes She Calls Me Firefly (2019 New York Innovative Theater Award Winner Best Original Short Script); Akira & The Merpeople (Polyphone Festival 2020); Red Emma & the Mad Monk (NY Times Critic's Pick, 6 NYIT Nominations, LadyFest 2018); ThreeTimesFast (Florida Festival of New Musicals 2019, O'Neill Theater Festival Semi-Finalist); Toy Box (Radio Play, IndieWorks' Bite-sized Broaway), The Awakening (O'Neill Theater Festival Semi-Finalist, MTF Developmental Series at Playwright's Horizons 2016). Teresa is an alumni of NPTC Women's Work Lab and the New Dramatists Composer-Librettists Studio. She was a 2020 Finalist for the Jonathan Larson Grant. Dramatist's Guild, ASCAP, Musical Theater Writing, M.F.A. NYU. TeresaLotz.com

ON HER SHOULDERS was founded in May 2013 to present rehearsed, staged readings of plays by women from across the spectrum of time, with contemporary dramaturgs contextualizing them for modern audiences. The program was incorporated into NPTC's Women's Work Project and continues to strive to make it impossible for producers and theatre companies to deny or ignore the 1,000-year history and value of women's contribution to the theatrical canon. To date the program has presented 59 plays by 46 writers from the years ca. 955 to 1970.

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