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Nat Turner in Jerusalem

  • Nathan Alan Davis
  • Full Length Play, Drama, Period, Docudrama/Historic, 19th Century
  • 2M
  • ISBN: 9780573706141

"The sparse, persuasive two-hander examines America's racial history, but feels disturbingly close to the present day."

The Village Voice

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama, Period, Docudrama/Historic
  • 90 minutes

  • Time Period: 19th Century
  • Target Audience: Adult
  • Set Requirements: Interior Set
  • Cautions: Strong Language

  • Performance Group:
  • Elementary School / Primary, Professional Theatre, Shoestring Budget, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, College Theatre / Student
In August 1831, Nat Turner led a slave uprising that shook off the conscience of the nation. Turner's startling account of his prophecy and the insurrection was recorded and published by attorney Thomas R. Gray.

Nathan Alan Davis writes a timely new play that imagines Turner's final night in a jail cell in Jerusalem, Virginia, as he is revisited by Gray and they reckon with what has passed, and what the dawn will bring. Woven with vivid imagery and indelible lyricism, Nat Turner in Jerusalem examines the power of an individual's resolute convictions and their seismic reverberations through time.
REVIEWS:

"[T]he most interesting part of the creative exercise is not the activity inside Turner's cell, but the breadth of its implications about our relationship with history as a whole -- whether 200 years past or flooding your Twitter feeds as we speak."

TheaterMania

"But while offering a corrective to earlier interpretations of Turner's narrative, Davis doesn't attempt to saddle it with an equally overbearing one; he resists any singular reading, let alone an overtly political one. He prefers to let the tale remain as mysterious and open-ended as possible, and thus, in its way, more terrifying."

New York Magazine

"The sparse, persuasive two-hander examines America's racial history, but feels disturbingly close to the present day."

The Village Voice

Premiere Production: Nat Turner in Jerusalem premiered at the New York Theatre Workshop in New York City in September 2016 under the direction of Megan Sandberg-Zakian.

Characters

  • Casting: 2M
  • Casting Attributes: Reduced casting (Doubling Possible), Role(s) for Black Actor(s), All Male, Strong Role for Leading Man (Star Vehicle)

  • NAT TURNER - (M, Black, 30s) A religious leader, author of a slave uprising and now prisoner on the eve of his execution.
    THOMAS R. GRAY - (M, White, 30s) A lawyer, rhetorician and now the author of Nat's confession.
    GUARD - (M, White, 30s) A jailor. Played by the actor playing Thomas Gray.

    • Available Material

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    Nat Turner in Jerusalem Script This is optional. Order Now

    In August 1831, Nat Turner led a slave uprising that shook off the conscience of the nation. Turner's startling account of his prophecy and the insurrection was recorded and published by attorney Thomas R. Gray.

    Nathan Alan Davis writes a timely new play that imagines Turner's final night in a jail cell in Jerusalem, Virginia, as he is revisited by Gray and they reckon with what has passed, and what the dawn will bring. Woven with vivid imagery and indelible lyricism, Nat Turner in Jerusalem examines the power of an individual's resolute convictions and their seismic reverberations through time.

    		$24.95

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