Presenting – Phenomenal Women

In celebration of Women’s History Month, Living Literature presents Phenomenal Women, a 45 minute, two person readers’ theatre performance of poetry, prose, and history that celebrates women. For this program we showcase some of our favorite pieces from the 19th Amendment,  Mothers & Daughters, and Pearls, Politics & Power programs; learning from and celebrating women’s visionary voices, both past and present, who inspire us. Featuring local actors Kelly Seigh and Catia.

Email LivingLiteratureRI@gmail.com for more info about booking this program

Firekeeper’s Daughter: a selection of Contemporary Native Voices

Living Literature presents: Firekeeper’s Daughter: a selection of Contemporary Native Voices, a readers’ theatre performance, created in association with The RI Center for the Book, in support of the 2022 RARI community read Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, the program is a selection of contemporary Native American writing, including excerpts from Firekeeper’s Daughter, and material from the RARI companion reads: Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Voices of the Warp and Weft, a collection of contemporary native writings edited by Amber Bliss. It also includes text from The Land Act of 1830, and quotes from Pope Francis. This program features actors Carol Pegg (Muscogee Creek) and Living Literature founder Barry Press. 

Rising, Dispatches From the New American Shore

Through the multiple lenses of theater, literature and science, local professional actors will perform a 45 minute readers’ theater adaptation of Rising, Dispatches from the New American Shore, by local author Elizabeth Rush (Reading Across Rhode Island’s 2020 selection). Beginning with nearby Jacob’s Point in Warren to the San Francisco Bay Area, this book will both inform and inspire our community to engage in this urgent topic in small ways and large. The performance will be followed by conversation and Q and A about the book, and climate change adaptation in our community. We will partner with a local expert from Save the Bay, to help guide the conversation. Two copies of the book will be given out as prizes! This performance was developed as part of RI Center for the Book’s Reading Across Rhode Island programming.

Becoming Muhammad Ali

Living Literature, now celebrating its 25th year, presents a 30 minute, readers theatre version of Becoming Muhammad Ali by James Patterson and Kwame Alexander, the Kids Reading Across Rhode Island’s 2021 book selection. Before he was a household name, Cassius Clay was a kid with struggles like any other. Kwame Alexander and James Patterson, two heavy-hitters in children’s literature, join forces to vividly depict his life up to age seventeen in both prose and verse, including his childhood friends, struggles in school, the racism he faced, and his discovery of boxing.