JAG Productions Presents: JAG Juke Joint - A Benefit Dinner Party With Performances and Southern Home Cooking

Since its creation in 2015, JAG Productions focuses on creating theater to engage challenging issues of race, gender, sexuality and identity.

The organization was founded by Jarvis Antonio Green and exists to produce classic and contemporary African-American theatre; to serve as an incubator of new work that excites broad intellectual engagement; and thereby, to catalyze compassion, empathy, love and community through shared understandings of humankind.

Join us at 6:30PM on the evening of November 17th for a feast of luminous performances by your favorite JAG artists and southern home cooking prepared by Jarvis's mom. Cocktails and dinner begin at 6:30PM at the Newberry Market and performances begin at 7:30PM at Briggs Opera House in White River Junction, VT.

Tickets for the JAG Juke Joint can be purchased at www.JAGProductionsVT.com or by calling 802.332.3270.

The experience will be a gem of the Upper Valley, a chance to learn about the organization, meet its newly founded board of directors, celebrate the importance of this work in our current historical moment, and contribute to what is to come!

THE MENU:
Southern Fried Chicken or Southern Baked Chicken Marinated with Herbs
Three-Cheese Baked Macaroni
Potato Salad with Sweet Pickle and Garlic
Southern Style Collard Greens with Pork (vegetarian option available)
Pecan and Coconut Sweet Potato Soufflé
Cornbread

THE ARTISTS:
Wesley J. Barnes is an LA native, who received a BA in theatre performance/musical theatre from Concordia University Irvine (2015). As a member of the Kennedy Tap Co. he has performed for the NAACP Image Awards, PBS Holiday Spectacular, and Michael Jacksons 45th Birthday party and other events and tours. He has toured as a featured performer in Magic of the Dance in both Germany and Taiwan. Favorite credits include: Newsies, Scottsboro Boys, Godspell, In the Heights, Choir Boy, Hairspray, Songs for a New World, and the world premiere of Pamela's First Musical.

Alex Joseph Grayson is an NYC based actor from Watertown, NY. He made his regional theatre debut in Choir Boy under the direction of Jarvis Green! Other credits include: A Bronx Tale (Broadway), Louisiana Rhythm, The Color Purple, and Zucotti Park. Alex is a SUNY Fredonia and GCC Alum and is thankful for the unexpected adventures of his life.

Morgan Siobhan Green is an NYC theater artist and teacher. Some of her credits include: Folk Wandering (A.R.T. NY), Sweetee (Signature), the World Premiere Of Between The Lines (KC Rep), and the music video for The Avalanches hit song "Because I'm Me".

Francesca Harper performed on Broadway productions such as The Color Purple, (Shug, Squeak, U/S), Fosse, The Producers, All Shook Up, (Mama U/S), The Frogs, Off Broadway performances include: Sleep No More(Ceci Robertson), Sweet Charity (Helene), Sophisticated Ladies (Judith), Langston in Harlem(Mrs. Poindexter), The CA Lyons Project (Amandla), House Arrest(Sally), 50 Minutes with Harriet and Phillis, Zinnias, and The Look of Feeling. She's appeared on several TV shows and films, such as David Letterman Show, Oprah Winfrey Show, The Producers Movie Musical, Ballet consultant for Darren Aronofsky's feature film BLACK SWAN. Her hard work and dedication led to her winning various awards, Presidential Scholar in the Arts, Louis Vuitton Innovation and Technology Award, Living History Award, just to name a few. Her choreography credits include Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theater of Harlem, Balé Da Cidade, Hubbard Street, and many more. Harper is currently the Artistic Director of The Francesca Harper Project, and The Movement Invention Project.

Miranda Haymon is a Princess Grace Award/Honoraria-winning director and curator of performance originally from Boston. Artist-in-Residence at Roundabout Theatre Company; previously as the 2017/18 Directing Fellow, currently the Artistic Development Associate. New Georges Affiliate Artist, Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab, Wingspace Mentorship Program, Manhattan Theatre Club Directing Fellow, Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow at Arena Stage. Miranda is a graduate of Wesleyan University where she double majored in German Studies and Theater and was awarded the Rachel Henderson Theater Prize in Directing.

Wonu Ogunfowora is currently performing in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway. Past Broadway/Tour credits include A Bronx Tale and Sister Act. Regional credits consist of Smokey Joe's Cafe, All Shook Up, Hairspray, among others. Readings/Workshops: The Harder They Come (Public Theater), Independence (La Jolla Playhouse). Many thanks to Jarvis for having her here.

Claxton Rabb is a NY based singer and actor, currently in the cast of Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom directed by Fracaswell Hyman and Ally Sheedy. A few of his favorite credits include: National Tour: Three Little Birds (Swing); Regional: Hair (Hud)/ ABT, Choir Boy (David Heard)/JAG Productions), A Year with Frog and Toad (Toad)/Scranton Cultural Center). Claxton is a proud graduate with honors from American University, BA Musical Theatre. He sends all the love and thanks to his family and his tribe for their endless support.

Jon-Michael Reese received a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University. National Tour: Doctor in Book of Mormon, Regional: Jesse Howard in This Bitter Earth (Penumbra Theatre), Padre in Man of la Mancha (Theatre Latté Da), Edward Adu (Gregory Award for Outstanding Actor) in My Heart is the Drum (Village Theatre), Thomas Edison in Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat (Adirondack Theatre Festival), Cordelia in King Lear (EPBB), Sagramore in Camelot (Westport County Playhouse), Paul in when last we flew (Lucille Lortel), Seaweed in Hairspray (Drury Lane), Matt in Fantasticks (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park).

Nathan Yungerberg is a Brooklyn-based playwright. His plays include Esai's Table, Evelyn Dreams of Horses The Son of Dawn, Pousada Azul, Orchids and Polka Dots, Golden Gate, Brush Strokes, Seven Pools of Lebanon, And She Became the Rain and Isosceles. Nathan's work has been developed or featured by The Cherry Lane Theatre (2017 Mentor Project with Stephen Adly Guirgis), Roundabout Theatre Company, The Playwrights' Center, JAG Productions, Crowded Fire Theater, The Brooklyn Museum, The Nuyorican Poets Café , The Lorraine Hansberry Theater, Brava Theater, The Lark, The Fire This Time Festival, 48 Hours in Harlem, Climate Change Theatre Action, The National Black Theatre, The Hansberry Project, The National Black Theatre Festival, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Blackboard Reading Series, T. Schreiber Studio, The Dramatist Guild, Flashpoint Theater, The August Wilson Red Door Project, New Venture Theater, The Brooklyn Generator, Multistages theater and BBC Radio Afternoon Drama. Nathan is one of seven black playwrights commissioned by The New Black Fest for HANDS UP: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments which was published by Samuel French. Awards and honors: The 2016 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference (Semifinalist), Ken Davenport 10-Minute Play Festival (Winner), 11th Annual InspiraTO Festival (Finalist), and the Blue Ink Playwriting Award (Semifinalist), 2019 Djerassi Resident Artist.

Theater has the power to inspire and uplift, but it also has the power to challenge, to liberate and inform individual and communities. Just as playwright August Wilson developed a series of plays to address the critical issues of each decade of the 20th century, theater is the soundtrack of movements and has played a central role in the fight for freedom. JAG Productions continues this precious inheritance as the only Black theater company in Vermont.

As the leaves and trees of the Upper Valley continue their cycle of birth and rebirth, you have our very wishes for your own transition into fall and hope to see you at the JAG Juke Joint!

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