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The new season of Penn Live Arts will feature performances addressing gun violence.
For its 2023-2024 season, which opens this weekend at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Penn Live has enlisted Philadelphia-based dancer and choreographer Rennie Harris and New York theater troupe Negro Ensemble Company, Inc., (NEC) be artists in residence.
They will present their work under the banner of “Toll the death knell: a cry for peace” a series in the season. Harris will present updated versions of plays he has presented previously, including “Students of the Asphalt Jungle” and “March of the Antman.” The NEC will present an evening of new one-act plays about gun violence. They will also stage Charles Fuller’s “Zoman and the Sign,” a 1979 drama about gun violence set in North Philadelphia.
Christopher A. Gruits, executive and artistic director of Penn Live Arts, said the artists will address gun violence in a relevant and exciting way.
“There will be a wide range of emotions that will come out of this work. Some things will be tragic, but others will also be beautiful,” he said. “It’s really an opportunity to shed light on the issue, but to interpret it in a way that hopefully can have a profound impact on the public, rather than for someone who just listen to the news and hear the grim statistics.”