Greensboro: A Requiem

Prof. Maya E. Roth directs this community reading on Georgetown campus as a part of the Emily Mann Festival at Playhouse Creatures Theater (Off-Broadway.)

Emily Mann’s Greensboro: A Requiem theatrically chronicles the Greensboro Massacre, a deadly confrontation when members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party (ANP) ambushed and killed five labor activists, both Black and White, demonstrating with the Communist Workers Party (CWP).  No Klansmen or Nazis were hurt. The attack took place in a black neighborhood of Greensboro, N.C., on the morning of Nov. 3,1979. All Klansmen were fully acquitted of criminal charges, stirring fresh grief.

Mann’s testimonial play premiered at the Tony-Award winning McCarter Theater (Princeton, NJ) in February 1996, where she served as Artistic Director for three decades. The New York Times called it “an ambitious, panoramic theatrical documentary” as the play weaves together court records and Mann’s interviews with dozens of surviving community members over time. The cast of characters eerily reveal historical as well as existential stakes that resonate now.

This presentation of Greensboro: A Requiem is directed by Professor Maya E. Roth, among the most distinguished artist-scholars of feminist theater in the US, and the founder of the Program in Theater and Performance Studies as well as the Davis Performing Arts Center on Georgetown campus. Roth’s engagement with Mann’s work has been extensive, through directing, advising senior theses, new play workshops and teaching. Roth was recently invited by Playhouse Creatures Theater to curate a masterclass on Mann’s process, where she introduced Mann as a “luminary, and a good soul, [who] shares pluralism, historical conscience, and consciousness.” Roth describes Mann’s work as “a rippling and a rupture, (inviting) a different kind of listening.”

Georgetown’s community reading involves 40+ performers —alumni, students, faculty and professionals— with live music and multimedia. The reading is supported by two Georgetown alums whom Roth has mentored over the years: Fatima Dyfan and Mar Cox. Dyfan, currently a Miranda Family Fellow at Wolly Mammoth Theater Company, will have her major regional playwriting debut at Arena Theater as a part of My Body No Choice; Mar Cox, who is currently pursuing an MFA in Film and Media Studies at American University, has been a prominent theater artist/ administrator at Heartbeat Opera (NY), Mosaic Theater Company, and others. Roth has involved each in several of her cross-generational community-engagement projects for Georgetown that creatively fuse remembrance, creativity and activism, including in honor of the Velvet Revolution, racial and gender justice, voting rights, and refugee issues. Joseph Rodriguez, the Producing Artistic Director of Playhouse Creatures and Mann’s longtime collaborator as actor and activist, is a featured performer, as well. Shakeer Hood (COL ’24), who leads the campus’ Black Theatre Ensemble, will also collaborate. “Through the Festival, we are connecting generations and diverse artists attuned to how past and present interact,” notes Roth.

Playhouse Creatures’ Festival of Emily Mann’s work is currently presenting a full production of Mann’s Still Life in collaboration with Ancram Opera House in London, which follows a series of special events in the US and Canada last year. Roth’s community reading of Greensboro: A Requiem is the first of five, with the next community reading of Greensboro, with a different cast, to be livestreamed from London on November 3. The Festival encourages donations to the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, NC, which is committed to supporting the working poor.

Please note:

Georgetown University is a vaccinated campus. Events scheduled at this time to be held live are subject to change. We encourage, but do not require, the use of masks indoors, in compliance with the University’s public health guidelines, which may include additional guest registration protocols in effect at the time of the event. The University may limit capacity in certain indoor venues at any time. Attendees should be fully vaccinated, and anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 needs to stay home.

All faculty and student artists working on DPA performances are taking every precaution to adhere to protocols and the latest public health guidelines, and to prioritize the safety and comfort of audience members and the wider community.

We are committed to the safety of our entire community, and will be monitoring the ongoing pandemic to make adjustments as needed. Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to sharing this vibrant season of events with you!