Books on the Chopping Block Readings Celebrate Banned Books Week,
Launch City Lit’s New Second Performance Space
City Lit Theater Company is joining with the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom in presenting Books on the Chopping Block, the Chicago celebration of the ALA’s 25th annual Banned Books Week (September 23-30).
Kicking off September 24, City Lit and the ALA will present four performances of short excerpts from nine books that faced expulsion from the high school curriculum in suburban Cook County earlier this year. The 7 p.m. readings will inaugurate City Lit’s 2006-07 concert readings series in its new second space at Gallery Mornea, 602 Davis Street in Evanston.
“Bring the kids,” said City Lit Artistic Director Terry McCabe. “We’ll be reading from terrific works of literature everyone should know.”
In May, District 214, the second-largest school district in Illinois, was embroiled in controversy when a school board member proposed removing nine books from the list of required reading texts for high school students. Over a thousand students and parents discussed the books for five hours, leading to a 6-1 vote at 1:30 a.m. May 26.
Books on the Chopping Block is an 80-minute program consisting of readings from the books, including widely popular and highly acclaimed works. Among the nine books are a Pulitzer Prize winner, a Pulitzer finalist, three National Book Award finalists, and a Coretta Scott King Award winner. The books are: “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, “Beloved” by Toni Morrison, “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World” by Michael Pollan, “Fallen Angels” by Walter Dean Myers, “Freakonomics” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” by Julia Alvarez, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, and “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. The cast of Books on the Chopping Block is Thad Anzur, Cameron Feagin, Katy Nielsen, and Tom Shea, directed by McCabe.
Banned Books Week – Celebrating the Freedom to Read – is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, the event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. The event is sponsored by the ALA, the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores. It is endorsed by the Library of Congress Center for the Book. For more information on Banned Books Week, please visit www.ala.org/bbooks.
“City Lit is privileged to join with the ALA in this important work,” McCabe said. “Our focus is literate theatre, so we are naturally concerned by attempts to keep books away from people. Concert readings of excerpts from challenged books actively celebrate the books most at risk and call attention to the would-be censor's threat to an educated democracy. We can’t imagine a better way to kick off our new readings series.”
City Lit’s series at Gallery Mornea gives the theatre company a second performance space, one well-suited to the intimate nature of concert readings, a performance style City Lit pioneered when it was founded 27 years ago. City Lit continues to mount its subscription series of four fully produced shows on its mainstage at 1020 West Bryn Mawr Avenue in Chicago. In addition, City Lit will offer two sets of readings at Gallery Mornea in 2006-07: Books on the Chopping Block this month, and a second program to be determined in the spring. Starting in ’07-’08, City Lit plans three sets of concert readings every year at Gallery Mornea. This will make City Lit the only performing arts group with a season of regularly scheduled performances in downtown Evanston.
“It’s a great opportunity for us and a great venue to work in,” McCabe said. “We look forward to a long residency at Gallery Mornea.”
City Lit’s Books on the Chopping Block at Gallery Mornea will take place:
Sunday, September 24 at 7 p.m.
Friday, September 29 at 7 p.m.
Saturday, September 30 at 7 p.m.
There is no formal admission charge; a suggested $5 donation is requested. Children of an impressionable age will be admitted free. Reservations can be made by calling City Lit at 773-293-3682. There are three public parking lots within two blocks of the gallery.
(An additional performance of Books on the Chopping Block will occur on Wednesday, September 27 at 7:00 at Kate the Great’s Book Emporium, 5550 N. Broadway in Chicago. This performance is free. See separate enclosed release.)
Gallery Mornea is committed to presenting contemporary, provocative art rooted in strong conceptual and aesthetic foundations. It exhibits work in all media by emerging and established local and nationally recognized artists. It was founded in 2002 and has been featured on WTTW’s “Artbeat Chicago,” and in the publications of: Art in America, Design and Architecture Magazine (Chicago edition), the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Evanston Review and the Daily Northwestern. For more on Gallery Mornea, call 847-864-1906
City Lit Theater Company specializes in literate theatre, including stage adaptations of literary material. Its 27th season begins with the world premiere of Frank Galati’s adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, which begins previews on its mainstage at 1020 W. Bryn Mawr in Chicago September 22, opens September 25, and runs through November 5. The theatre’s box office number is 773-293-3682.