Filmmaker/playwright Phelim McAleer will bring a special sneak preview of his new Ferguson stage show to Washington D.C. on Wednesday April 15.
The half-hour performance in the city’s Atlas Performing Arts Centre will feature excerpts from McAleer’s explosive new play, which will meticulously recreate the August 9, 2014, fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson using actual testimony from the grand jury proceedings. The show is set to premiere at Los Angeles’s Odyssey Theater on April 26 and will run for four consecutive nights.
To heighten the realistic style of the play, Washington D.C. attorneys will take to the stage to play the roles of the lawyers who were involved in the grand jury process. The lawyers will ask the actual questions posed during the proceedings to the show’s actors, who will play the witnesses.
“It will be a roller coaster night for all involved,” said McAleer. “It is so emotional seeing how this incident affected everyone involved, from Michael Brown, Darren Wilson and the eyewitnesses who saw the shooting and death up close.”
Ferguson will adhere to a genre of theater known as “verbatim theatre,” in which events depicted onstage are recreated exclusively using real witness testimony and interviews. McAleer said the play’s realism will serve to dispel many of the rumors and misconceptions stirred up by the controversial incident.
“It will also be a chance to address a lot of the myths about the shooting and tell the truth about false narratives and stories that the mainstream spread about the killing,” the playwright added. “This play comes with no agenda; it is the verbatim transcripts with no additions. It’s just the truth – which in today’s America will probably make it very controversial.”
Due to the controversial nature of the play, McAleer has turned to crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to raise funds for the production. Those interested in attending the Los Angeles shows can visit FergusonThePlay.com to secure tickets.
Washington D.C.’s sneak preview is an invite-only event, but fans can email Fergusontheplay@gmail.com for information on how to attend.
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