Featured image: Zuzana Kronerova, Hot Summer '68, GUnaGU Theatre, photograph by Ctibor Bachraty
Detroit. The History of a Hand centers on the fulfillment and downfall of the American Dream. The play is based on Diego Rivera’s mural at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). Jolanta Janiczak wrote the script after she visited Detroit and witnessed the ruins of the once powerful city. Rivera painted an epic series of 27 intricate panels embedded into walls of the DIA courtyard. Entering this space offers visitors a chance to glimpse into the robust industrial era that Rivera transposed in 1933, when Detroit still stood as an icon of a modern city.
Detroit. The History of a Hand (Poland). Playwright: Jolanta Janiczak. Director: Vernice Miller. Translated by: Beata Marczynska-Fedorowicz. Running time: 90 min.
Detroit. The History of a Hand, directed by Wiktor Rubin, premiered at the Polish Theater in Bydgoszcz in 2014.
For more information, visit www.rehearsalfortruth.org.
The reading is followed by Q&A. It is free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. Donations benefit the Best Mini-Drama Student Contest program.
The event will be prerecorded and available online on the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation YouTube channel from Sunday, April 25, 1:00 p.m. RSVP is required to receive the Zoom link for the talk with the cast. RSVP online through Eventbrite.
ABOUT THE 2021 SPRING WEEKEND: CONCERNING HUMAN IDENTITY
The 2021 Spring Weekend: Concerning Human Identity is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation (VHLF) and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA) in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York and Consulate General of Slovakia in New York. Spring Weekend is part of the annual Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival honoring the playwright and human rights activist Vaclav Havel. It showcases contemporary European plays through stage readings performed and directed by New York City–based actors and directors.
The 2021 program has been conceived in consultation with Attila Szabo, Deputy Director, Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute; Vladislava Fekete, Director, Theatre Institute in Bratislava; Zuzana Ulicianska, Chair of the Slovak Center – International Association of Theatre Critics; Tomek Smolarski, Performing Arts Programming, Polish Cultural Institute New York; and Martina Peckova-Cerna, Head of International Cooperation Department, Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague.
The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Council Member Ben Kallos. Promotion partners include the Czech Center New York, GOH Productions/Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, and PACE.V4 (Performing Arts Central Europe).