Actress Fanny Kemble Opens Her Eyes to Life Beyond the Wicked Stage in Unbound Feb. 12-March 6 in NYC | Playbill

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News Actress Fanny Kemble Opens Her Eyes to Life Beyond the Wicked Stage in Unbound Feb. 12-March 6 in NYC Prospect Theater Company unmasks the 19th century actress Fanny Kemble in a new play, Unbound, Feb. 12-March 6 in Manhattan.

Laura Marks' play, conceived and directed by Davis McCallum, is adapted from the journals of London-born Fanny Kemble (1809-1893), the youngest member of the Kemble theatrical family.

According to Prospect notes, "Her debut as Juliet saved Covent Garden from bankruptcy, and catapulted her to the heights of international celebrity. Offstage, Kemble was equally notorious. She married, for love, Pierce Butler — a Philadelphia native and heir to a vast slave plantation. When Butler moved his young family to Georgia, Kemble's journals — previously full of a celebrity's petty annoyances — took on a larger significance: to bear witness to the horrors of slavery. Through seamless integration of text and movement, Unbound dramatizes the vigorous internal conversation that Kemble carries on in the pages of her journals, and chronicles her moral awakening in the face of the great political issue of her day."

The cast includes Sandi Carroll, Beth Dixon, Cedric Hayman, Laura Jordan, Austin Jones, Peter McCain, Jenni-Lynn McMillin and Michele Vasquez. All the women in the production play Kemble.

Marks is an actress and writer who has appeared in principal roles at the Steppenwolf Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and many other theatres in New York and Chicago.

McCallum directed last season's The Belle's Stratagem for Prospect and has directed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Acting Company, Shenandoah Shakespeare, Georgia Shakespeare Festival, New York Stage & Film, and Princeton University, where he is a member of the theatre faculty. Designers are Sandra Goldmark (set), Naomi Wolff (costume), Lucrecia Briceno (lighting) and Fitz Patton (sound).

Performances are at The West End Theatre in the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew (263 West 86th Street at Broadway).

Show times are Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 PM with matinee performances on Sundays at 3 PM. There are two additional 8 PM performances on Feb. 14 and March 2. Ticket prices are $15 for adults and $12 for students, which can be purchased in advance at (212) 352-3101.

Depending on availability, tickets may also be purchased at the box office which opens one hour prior to performance.

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Prospect Theater Company is a non-profit organization, founded in 1998 by five graduates of Princeton University, "in order to allow a diverse group of emerging theatre professionals to work together in pursuit of artistic excellence and innovation. Known both for its development of new musicals and its engaging interpretations of classic plays, Prospect strives to build bridges between artists and audiences, and to connect theatre's present to its past — in order to build its future." For more information on Prospect Theater Company, visit www.prospecttheater.org.

 
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