Sunday with Friends: Peter H. Luce Play Readers Perform "Seven"

On Sunday, November 16th at 2pm at the Vineyard Haven Public Library, the Peter H. Luce Play Readers will perform the documentary play "Seven" as a staged reading. A collaboration of 7 award-winning women playwrights, "Seven" is based on personal interviews with women who have triumphed over huge obstacles to create major changes in human rights in their home countries. The play is performed with the permission of the Dramatists Play Service, Inc., and this performance is sponsored by the Friends of the Vineyard Haven Public Library. The performance is free, and refreshments will be served.

Playwrights Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith and Susan Yankowitz interviewed woman from 7 different countries. The common thread is the serious injustices done to women in these countries and how--slowly but steadily--strong individual women are beginning to speak out and be heard; changing laws, rescuing women in distress and bringing the attention of the world of the plight of disadvantaged and abused women.

The first productions of "Seven" were launched during International Women's Week in 2008, with performances in New York City, Washington D.C. and Deauville, France. Since then the play has been performed almost continuously in cultural festivals throughout the United States and all over the world, often with the encouragement and sponsorship of the U.N. and many other international institutions.

Leslie J. Stark has adapted and staged the play for the Luce Play Readers and will also direct. The cast includes Connie McCreery as Inez McCormack of Northern Ireland, Charlena Seymour (as Anabella De Leon of Guatemala, Nora Nevin as Farida Azizi of Afghanistan, Rise Terney as Marina Pisklakova of Russia, Sofia Anthony as Mu Sochua of Cambodia, Ellie Beth as Hafsat Abiola of Nigeria, and Elaine Bart as Mukhtar Mai of Pakistan. Each of the performers will also read the speeches of several minor characters. The play will be performed without intermission and should run just over one hour. It will be introduced by Linda Vadasz, who originally brought this play to the attention of the Play Readers.

For more than 15 years, the Peter H Luce Play Readers have met every Wednesday of the year at the Vineyard Haven Senior Center from 9AM to Noon to read plays of every era and of every genre, from the Greek and Roman classics to the cutting-edge works of contemporary playwrights... and everything in between: Shakespeare, Shaw, Checkov, Moliere, Miller, Ibsen Albee, O'Neil, Pinter and Neil Simon. The group is named for its founder, Peter Luce, who died in 2007.

The Friends of the Vineyard Haven Public Library encourage public understanding of the Library's vital role in the community, support activities for both adults and children, and provide various other volunteer services. Their mission is to support the Library, to build a partnership between the Library and the community and to advocate for exemplary library service. All volunteers and those who are interested in knowing more about the Friends meet at 10:00am on the fourth Saturday of every month (except December) at the library.