A Season in the Congo; Epic Play of Congolese Independence Leader Patrice Lumumba Brought to the Stage by New York City Youth

From: Castillo Theatre

Contact: All Stars Project, Inc/Castillo Theatre

Gail Peck, 212-356-8449; 917-371-5008 gpeck@allstars.org

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For Immediate Release

A Season in the Congo

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Epic Play of Congolese Independence Leader Patrice Lumumba

Brought to the Stage by New York City Youth

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Youth Cast to Raise Funds to Support Youth in the Congo

With daily articles on the war raging in the Congo and America electing it’s first African American President, New York City youth from Youth Onstage! are mounting an epic production about the 1960’s Congolese Independence leader Patrice Lumumba called A Season in the Congo written by the late Martinician poet and political leader Aimé Césaire. Hoping to draw attention to the dire situation in central Africa today, after each performance the young performers will be raising funds for War Child, an organization working with children and young people around the world who have been impacted on by the trauma of war.

A Season in the Congo: Friday, March 6 and runs through Sunday, April 5, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m., at the Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42^nd Street admission $25 adults; $10 students and senior citizens: A Season in the Congo is an action-packed epic with environmental staging by director Brian Mullin that covers the first year of Congolese independence during which the popular independence leader Patrice Lumumba faced turmoil from within and sabotage from abroad.

The 20 performers in A Season in the Congo are mostly graduates of the Youth Onstage! Community Performance School, the Castillo Theatre’s free professional theatre training program.

The Martinique playwright Aimé Césaire was one of the leading surrealist poets of the 20^th Century and a founder of the Negritude movement that laid the groundwork for the Black Power Movement in the United States in the 1960’s. Césaire wrote A Season in the Congo within a few years of the events it depicts. The play, in which the influence of both Shakespeare and Brecht are evident, has only been produced three other times in the United States. Césaire died last year at the age of 94. The show will take place from March 6-April 5, 2009 at Castillo Theatre.