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Moraine Valley Community College MVCC

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Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 By Ray Hanania No Comments on Moraine Valley students perform in original theatrical production
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Moraine Valley students perform in original theatrical production

Moraine Valley Community College will present “American Griot,” an original play exploring Muslim influence on the American music genre known as the blues. The Academic Theater production will run Feb. 21 to March 3, in the John and Angeline Oremus Theater, inside the Fine and Performing Arts Center, 9000 W. College Parkway, Palos Hills.

Show times are Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15, $12 for seniors, and $10 for students with ID and children ages 12 and under.

The play is written by local residents Ronnie Malley, a professional playwright and former Moraine Valley student, and Reginald Edmund, local professional playwright. Directed by Dr. Craig Rosen, Theater professor, and Academic Theater coordinator, the bulk of the roles will be played by Moraine Valley students.

Performers include Yasir Muhammad, of Oak Lawn; Jarrin Comer, of Matteson; Curtis Griffin, of Hazel Crest; Angelo Greene, of Blue Island; Kirsten Baity, of Robbins; Andrew Kuntz, of Alsip, Joshua Unruh, of Oak Lawn; Destiny Patino, of Merrionette Park; Bryanna Hedrick, of Chicago; and Stephanie Reusz, of Tinley Park.

Moraine Valley Community College MVCC
Moraine Valley Community College MVCC

Told through the lens of Mamadou, an 18th century griot (African storyteller musician), the play takes audiences on a musical journey to the crossroads of Africa and America, revealing the shared history of Islam and the blues on both continents.

A grant to help fund the creation of an original theatrical performance was awarded to the college through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Art Works is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and strengthening of communities through the art. The college worked in collaboration with the award-winning Silk Road Rising, a Chicago-based theater company to create the performance as part of Moraine Valley’s Academic Theater Program.

Creating the original theater work is a continuation of the Mosaics: Muslim Voices in America program at Moraine Valley, made possible in part by a grant from the Association of Professional Arts Professions’ Building Bridges: Arts Culture and Identity, a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.

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Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania is an award-winning columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.  

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

Email Ray Hanania at [email protected].

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Education, Entertainment, Features, General Topics, News, Religion, Suburban Chicagoland, Theater Tags:American Griot, Blues, Islam, Moraine Valley Community College, Muslims, MVCC, theater production

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