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Chuck Carney
IU School of Education
ccarney@indiana.edu
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Last modified: Tuesday, January 18, 2011

School of Education, Arts in Education Club, Office of Multicultural Initiatives hold auditions for spring production

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 18, 2011

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University School of Education, in conjunction with The Arts in Education Club at Indiana University and Office of Multicultural Initiatives, will hold open readings for the casting of the theatrical production of Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992.

Readings will be held on Thursday and Friday (Jan. 20-21) at 6 p.m. in the School of Education Atrium, 201 N. Rose Ave., Bloomington. Public performances of the play are on March 25 and 26 at a site still to be determined.

Gus Weltsek

Gus Weltsek

Following last year's successful production of The Laramie Project, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 marks the School of Education and Office of Multicultural Initiatives' second annual collaborative theatrical production and the first to be produced in association with the Arts in Education Club at Indiana University. The Arts in Education Club mission is to promote fine arts in the classroom and the community.

The production is all-inclusive, and any person auditioning for the production will be cast. The play calls for a diverse cast of characters and all interested parties are encouraged to audition. No previous acting experience required.

"Through this collaborative effort, the presentation of productions such as The Laramie Project and Twilight are intended to unite the entire IU Bloomington community in discussions of diversity, tolerance and unity," said project faculty advisor Gustave Weltsek of the Department of Literacy, Culture and Language Education in the IU School of Education. "The scripts are selected specifically because of their relevance to current socio-cultural trends occurring on campus, Bloomington and the world at large."

Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, has been called a groundbreaking piece of "documentary theater" that explores the consequences of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The riots began after jurors acquitted police officers charged with the beating of Rodney King. Characters are drawn from interviews with real people who experienced the riots. The play presents an insightful look at racial tension in the United States. The New York Times called it "an expression of the eternal search for order in an anarchic world" when the play made its debut. Following nearly unanimous critical praise, the play was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Weltsek said the organizations collaborating for the production hope to build upon the positive response to last year's initial event. Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 offers another opportunity to spark a dialogue through performance art. "This year we invite people from all over the IU Bloomington family to use theater to explore the very serious tensions which arise through ideas of cultural, class, gender and race," Weltsek said.