Laborfest: Drama: Mixed Relief-Women Writers

Mixed Relief
Promoting Actors’ Equity Association and Benefiting The Actor’s Fund
Members of The Bay Area Advisory Committee of Actors Equity Association will stage a benefit performance of MIXED RELIEF, a play about women writers of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as part of LaborFest 2012. Presented as a benefit for The Actor’s Fund, a nationwide human services organization for professionals in the performing arts, MIXED RELIEF is directed by Equity Member Phoebe Moyer and contrasts the stories of three women writers of the WPA with those of contemporary theatre artists.
MIXED RELIEF gives an insightful look at the writers lives of the WPA (Work Progress Administration) during the Depression. Life stories of writers Anzia Yezierska, Dorothy West and Eudora Welty are juxtaposed with interviews from contemporary women theatre artists, playwrights Kara Lee Corthon, Cassandra Medley and actor-director Mabou Mimes luminary Ruth Maleczech. Hallie Flanagan and Eleanor Roosevelt, key arts advocates in the 1930’s, make telling appearances.
Celebrating the women of the WPA and featuring members of Actors’ Equity Association in LaborFest, this play is a way not only to remind the public that there was amazing artistic development when the Federal Government made a commitment and investment in arts jobs in the 1930’s, but also that our labor unions are critical in the USA.
Contact for Actors’ Equity Association: Maria Somma, Spokesperson; 212-869-8530, ext 425 or 917-560-3488; msomma [at] actorsequity.org
http://www.actorsequity.org
http://www.actorsfund.org/
http://www.actorsequity.org/Newsmedia/news2012/may14.MixedRelief.asp
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/yezierska-anzia
http://www.biography.com/people/dorothy-west-40051 (1907-1998)
http://www.eudorawelty.org/bio.html (1909-2001)
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/138751-Kara-Lee-Corthron-Named-Paula-Vogel-Playwriting-Award-Winner-
http://ensemblestudiotheatre.org/cassandra-medley/
http://www.maboumines.org/ruth-maleczech
http://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/faculty/prominent-faculty/hallie-flanagan-davis.html (1890-1969)
http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=33 (Eleanor Roosevelt 1884-1962)
http://www.laborfest.net/2012/2012schedule.htm