{"id":20853,"date":"2017-08-14T11:28:36","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T15:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=20853"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:36:39","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:36:39","slug":"count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=20853","title":{"rendered":"PlayMakers kicks off PRC2 season with ‘Count,’ drama about six men on death row, on Aug. 23"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"PlayMakers Repertory Company<\/a> kicks off its 2017-2018 season with the world premiere of \u201cCount<\/em>,\u201d in the first production of its PRC2 second-stage series, Aug. 23-27. This docu-drama written by Lynden Harris is co-produced with the North Carolina based collective, Hidden Voices<\/strong>. The production is directed by Kathryn Hunter-Williams, member of the PlayMakers resident acting company, in her PlayMakers directorial debut.<\/p>\n

Based on years of conversations between Hidden Voices and men on death row from throughout the country, \u201cCount<\/em>\u201d asks us to experience a day-in-the-life of six men as they reflect upon the life paths that led them to this moment and place. Their lively, difficult and ultimately affirming search for what ancient philosophers called \u201cthe good life\u201d challenges and transforms us, with the recognition that we are all struggling for the same things.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Count<\/em>\u2019 is a theatrical distillation of work that Lynden Harris, Hidden Voices and I have done for more than four years,\u201d says director Kathryn Hunter-Williams. \u201cIn interviewing incarcerated men here in North Carolina, and throughout the United States, we tapped into issues of poverty, mental illness, race, and familial incarceration as recurring themes in the maps of their lives. We also tapped into things we didn\u2019t expect — hope and love. My hope is that this production helps audiences see that these men aren\u2019t so much \u201cother\u201d than us, and, using theatre as an agent, for the next generation we might change the factors that pushed these <\/em>men along a certain path, and help redraw some real-life stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am incredibly excited to open our new season with a searing, provocative, heart-forward work of theatre that continues PlayMakers\u2019 commitment to opening dialogue about relevant and important issues of our time.<\/p>\n

Incarceration, social justice, crime and punishment are complex, huge scale issues, but in this work we see them through a personal, human-scale lens that makes them that much more relatable,\u201d says Vivienne Benesch, PlayMakers Producing Artistic Director. \u201cWhat makes \u2018Count<\/em>\u2019 so compelling is that Lynden and Kathy have brought us a work that is both compassionate and unflinching, and in the intimate setting of our PRC2\u00a0 second stage, audiences are literally and emotionally front row to this thought provoking, transformative journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Performances of \u201cCount<\/em>\u201d will be at 7:30 p.m. nightly August 23 to 27, and 2 p.m. Aug. 27 in the Center for Dramatic Art on Country Club Road. Following each performance will be a free talkback discussion between patrons, creative team, and community members from local and state legal, government, and social services organizations.<\/p>\n

Ticket prices start at $15 and may be purchased at www.playmakersrep.org <\/a>or by calling (919) 962-7529.<\/p>\n

Funding for the development of \u201cCount<\/em>\u201d was provided by The MAP Fund, which is primarily supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, with additional funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PlayMakers Repertory Company kicks off its 2017-2018 season with the world premiere of \u201cCount,\u201d in the first production of its PRC2 second-stage series, opening Aug. 23. This docu-drama about six men on death row was written by Lynden Harris and is co-produced with the North Carolina based collective, Hidden Voices. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fine-arts-humanities","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48198,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20853\/revisions\/48198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}