Staged reading of “In Abraham’s Bosom” to be presented April 4

Archived photo of "In Abraham's Bosom" (photo courtesy of the Paul Green Foundation)
Archived photo of “In Abraham’s Bosom” (photo courtesy of the Paul Green Foundation)

A free staged reading of “In Abraham’s Bosom,” a 1927 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama written by North Carolina playwright Paul Green, will be performed April 4 at 7 p.m. in the Paul Green Theatre of the Center for Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The reading will be directed by Joseph Megel, artist in residence in the department of communication in the College of Arts and Sciences and the director of the UNC Process Series. Actors include PlayMakers Repertory Company members Ray Dooley, Alphonse Nicholson, Gregory DeCandia and Myles Bullock, local writer and actor Thomasi McDonald, and others.

It will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Laurence Avery, English professor emeritus; Reginald Hildebrand, associate professor of African, African American and diaspora studies; and Samm-Art Williams, a North Carolina native and nationally recognized playwright and actor.

The Broadway production of “In Abraham’s Bosom” ran for 277 performances after premiering in 1926. The play tells the post-Civil War story of a young man, the son of a former slave owner and a poor black woman, who sees education as the means of raising himself and his people out of the bondage of segregation.

The presentation is presented by the Paul Green Foundation and supported by the North Carolina Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and Pulitzer NC to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize. University partners are the department of English and comparative literature, the Center for Dramatic Art and the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.