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take em down

by Kristian O’Hare

In the dark of night on December 20, 2017, a dedicated group of Memphis activists and city workers succeeded in their efforts to remove two confederate statues from the city's parks. Using council meetings, speeches, tweets, public statements, and historical documents, O'Hare presents a snapshot of their struggle.

Cast: Reed Bentley, Carter Caldwell, James Dauphin, Alexander Ferguson, Michael Johnson, Alex Joseph, Sarah Kmiecik, Ben Locke, Koshi Mills, Daniel Shtivelberg, and Danny Turek

Director: Daniel Sappington

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Kristian O’Hare earned his Ph.D. in English with an emphasis in playwriting at Western Michigan University and a MA in Playwriting from Boston University, where he worked with Nobel laureate Derek Walcott. His plays have been produced or developed by the Ruckus Theatre (Chicago), Ringwald Theatre (Detroit), The Dramatists Guild Footlights Series (San Francisco), Ivy Theatre Company (NYC), Great Plains Theatre Conference (Omaha), Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Retreat (LA), Sanguine Theatre Company (NYC), Headlands Center of the Arts (Sausalito), and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. His plays have been semifinalists at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. His play Like Poetry had a successful run in the New York International Fringe Festival. The New York Times called it “a highly promising production...beautifully structured, with an impressive blend of poignancy and humor.” Currently, he is a selected finalist in the Detroit New Works Festival, which “aims to showcase playwrights, promote new plays and musicals that focus on the subjects of equality and diversity, mental health, and/or social issues, and encourage community in the theatrical process.”

Daniel Sappington is excited for his first collaboration with Waltzing Mechanics! No newcomer to play festivals, he has recently directed ‘Grindrd’ for arciTEXT 2018 with the Arc Theatre, as well ‘RETCONtroversy’ in Otherworld Theatre’s Paragon Festival. Additional credits include ’40 Minutes to Howard’ and ‘Seminar (Jeff Recommended)’ with Spartan Theatre Company, and past arciTEXT festivals. Proud graduate of CCPA. As always - for Diego.