"Parade," a musical telling the true and controversial tale of a Jewish man lynched in Marietta, Ga., in 1913, will be performed Nov. 12-13 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Parade,” a musical telling the true and controversial tale of a Jewish man lynched in Marietta, Ga., in 1913, will be performed Nov. 12-13 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
More than 30 singers and actors will perform the musical, accompanied by a live orchestra of UNC music students, at 7:30 p.m. each day in the Beasley-Curtis Auditorium of Memorial Hall.
Carolina Performing Arts, the UNC Opera of the music department and the communication studies department will present “Parade” as part of UNC’s yearlong exploration of criminal justice issues.
Written by composer Jason Robert Brown and Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Alfred Uhry, “Parade” won Tony Awards for best book and best score in 2000. The plot follows Leo Frank, a Jewish man from Brooklyn, as he is accused of the murder of a young girl and subsequently hanged by members of the community.
“With history proving Frank’s trial to be full of inconsistencies, ‘Parade’ is a commentary on the social, political and judicial practices of this dark chapter in American history,” said Joseph Megel, a communication studies artist-in-residence who will direct the performances with music professor Terry Rhodes, Ph.D. Jesse Livingston, assistant conductor of the UNC Symphony Orchestra, will conduct the performances.
The production is being presented as part of Carolina Performing Arts’ campus-wide project “Criminal/Justice: The Death Penalty Examined,” which uses the arts as a catalyst to promote discussion of issues surrounding the death penalty. The project is made possible in part by a grant from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Creative Campus Innovations Grant program, a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Tickets to “Parade” are available at http://www.carolinaperformingarts.org, by calling (919) 843-3333 or at the Memorial Hall Box Office on Cameron Avenue, open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. General public tickets are $15. Tickets for Carolina students are $10. Tickets for all other performances in the 2007-08 Carolina Performing Arts season also are on sale.
Web sites: www.carolinacreativecampus.org, www.carolinaperformingarts.org
Carolina Performing Arts contact: Reed Colver, (919) 843-1833, rcolver@email.unc.edu
UNC Opera contact: William Reid, wreid@email.unc.edu