On Monday, February 22nd, a very special, one-night-only theatrical event will take place at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, CA. With proceeds going to benefit the American Red Cross, an all-star cast will perform a staged reading of 110 Stories, a theatrical presentation of a series of first-hand accounts of the events of September 11, 2001.

I find it remarkable that September 11th is objectively the most relevant, powerful and important event of the last twenty years and yet playwrights and producers have been reluctant to address the issue on stage or screen.

And the approach that playwright Sarah Tuft takes in presenting 110 Stories is to take the real stories and the actual words of people whom she interviewed in the days following the attack. Ms. Tuft then constructed the show by stitching the interviews together as over-lapping monologues.

An all-star cast has volunteered their time to perform the play:

Maria Conchita Alonso (Caught, Saints & Sinners, Broadway’s Kiss of the Spider Woman)

Ed Asner (Up, Elf, The Mary Tyler Moore Show)

Michael Beach (Third Watch, True Romance, Soul Food)

John Hawkes (Deadwood, Eastbound & Down, American Gangster)

Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters, Oz, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle)

Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue, Grey’s Anatomy)

Katharine McPhee (American Idol, The House Bunny)

Gail O’Grady (American Dreams, Boston Legal)

Stelio Savante (110 Stories – Original Cast, Ugly Betty, My Super Ex-Girlfriend)

Sophie Sinise (CSI: NY, Anatomy of Gray)

Nicholas Turturro (NYPD Blue, World Trade Center)

Diane Venora (Bird, Heat, The Insider)

Malcolm-Jamal Warner (The Cosby Show, Malcom & Eddie, Sherri)

Michael Welch (Twilight, New Moon, The Riches)

Narrated by Nic Harcourt (KCRW; Editor at Large: Music and Culture for LA: The Los Angeles Times Magazine)

Directed by Mark Freiburger (Dog Days Of Summer)

The show is described as being a “non sensationalized/non politicized first hand account of 9/11,” and I’m really looking forward to seeing it. When a subject as important as 9/11 is approached in a non-political way, letting the words of the victims and survivors convey the human drama and emotion of the moment, it demands the support of all of us who yearn for serious, compassionate political drama without a leftist lecture.

If you can, purchase tickets to the intimate Geffen Playhoue (I promise, Mr. Geffen himself won’t be there) and take in the evening. I’ll be there, and I look forward to writing my review in the days following.

WHEN: Feb 22nd @ 8pm

WHERE: Geffen Playhouse

WRITTEN BY: Sarah Tuft

DIRECTED BY : Mark Freiburger

PRODUCED By: Stelio Savante and Andrew Carlberg and CO PRODUCED by Lisa Smith and Beverly Holloway