New Circle Theatre Company

In Conjunction With
Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga, Silverthorne Theater Company in Massachusetts,
Endangered Species Theatre Project in Maryland, and
Little Fish Theatre in San Pedro, CA

Presents

DAYS OF POSSIBILITIES

Written by RICH ORLOFF

Directed by DAVID KRONICK

https://www.facebook.com/daysofpossibilitiesnycplay
May 4, 2020 7 p.m. EDT

This documentary-style event, performed on the 50th anniversary of the Kent State shootings, recounts the memories of contemporary university students to the gradual realization that the seeds of revolution were being sown. They were students at Ohio’s Oberlin College, writer Rich Orloff’s alma mater, not at Kent State, but the thread of war protest and the cries for an end to an unjust war rang through U.S. universities in parallel patterns. First, a slow realization that the Vietnam War existed. Then awareness that the war was growing but accomplishing nothing, only death and destruction. Awareness led to anger, which led to student activism.

Based on letters and interviews with more than 100 Oberlin alumni, the production follows the path from small early protests to bigger marches, physical confrontations with police, and massive demonstrations in Washington, D.C. Through the personal testimonies of these students, portrayed by more than twenty actors, we feel the reality. We are at the protests, in the marches, bullied by police, and find out that we have our names on FBI files. The remembrances cover the political spectrum: the radicals, the cautious, the conservative, and the clueless.

In 1964, neither college students nor the American public saw the “big picture”. By 1970, on a beautiful spring day, the war brought its killings to Ohio. That’s the day that things “got real”.

Orloff has done a spectacular job of bringing history to life. It is intense for those who lived through the era, a reality-check for those who are too young to remember. This is not a “history book” overview, but a deep insight into a unique era. It has a heartbeat. It has blood throbbing through its veins. It forces us to realize that “We Shall Overcome” is not just a song, but a possibility.

-Karen D’Onofrio-