Stageworks Theatre Presents MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA! 9/3-30

My Children! My Africa! by Athol Fugard examines the power of learning and the potency of words, ideas and hope in a time of heightened political and social unrest. Mr. M., a dedicated black teacher in a segregated township, is determined to pair his most gifted student with an enthusiastic white schoolgirl in an English literature competition. As the drilling for the competition advances and growing public resistance leads to school boycotts, friendships become colored by impassioned debates, and the three characters struggle to find understanding amidst South Africa's racial and social divides. The issues of peaceful resistance and debate versus violence as a means to produce social change continue to raise questions that endure today, despite the collapse of the apartheid system.

The cast: LERoy Mitchell, JR. (Mr. M.) returns to Stageworks Theatre and playwright Athol Fugard in this production of My Children! My Africa! His first appearance in an Athol Fugard work was in Stageworks Theatre's Master Harold and the Boys (Sam). Since then he counts numerous productions of Master Harold and the Boys and My Children! My Africa!, along with A Lesson from Aloes. Leory Mitchell, Jr. is a member of Actor's Equity Association.

Joshua Goff: (Thami) is a Stageworks Theatre resident artist. Most recently, he has been seen in Stageworks Theatre's main stage productions of Lobby Hero, Frozen, The Miser and Medea. He has toured for 5 years in Stageworks Theatre's "African American Greats" program for public secondary at-risk schools and is currently in a three year tour of Pow!r Play, an energy conservation play commissioned and sponsored by Tampa Electric Co. He is also an artist/coach in the Stageworks Theatre YEA Anger Management workshops for at-risk and DJJ youth. Last year Josh was also seen in Jobsite's Embedded.

Dahlia Legault (Isabel) another of Stageworks Theatre's resident artists recently appeared as one of the four leads in Stageworks Theatre's highly acclaimed Shining City. She is a soon-to-be graduate at the University of South Florida, where she has played a variety of roles, to include Petrucchio in Taming of the Shrew and her most recent role, Amelia Young in Bobby and the Chimps.

"...profoundly stirring."-Los Angeles Times

"Athol Fugard has created theater of power, glory, and majestic language."- The New York Times

My Children! My Africa! plays from Sept 3-30 2009 at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Shimberg Theatre (1010 N. W.C. MacInnes Place, Tampa, FL 33602)

The show plays Thu, Fri & Sat @ 8 p.m. & Sundays@ 4 p.m. After-show talkbacks on Sunday, Sept 6th and Thursday Sept 10th.

Single tickets available at TBPAC @ 813-229-7827 or online at www.tbpac.org.

Ticket Prices are $24.50

$10 are available for Students and Seniors 90 minutes prior to curtain and for the Preview Performance on Thursday Sept 3

For Group discounts call Jamie Zinober at 813-244-9106.

For more information, visit www.Stageworkstheatre.org.

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