South Hadley, Mass.-- The Mount Holyoke College Department of Theatre Arts and the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts present Sweet Maladies, a new play by Zakiyyah Alexander and directed by Jackson Gay, as part of the Weissman Center’s spring series, Acts of Reconstruction. Performances will take place Thursday through Saturday, April 27-29, at 8 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, April 29 and 30, at 2 pm in Rooke Theatre.

Sweet Maladies is a riveting drama set during Reconstruction after the Civil War. Two years after slavery has been abolished, three recently freed girls play with the only game they know: history. As the era of Reconstruction begins, these characters contend with the world that they have inherited and the society that they must reconstruct.

Zakiyyah Alexander is an award-winning playwright and visiting Mount Holyoke College Guest Artist in Residence. In this original and commissioned play, Alexander reconstructs the provocative world of early post-Civil War America. Inspired by the gripping 1940s play The Maids by French dramatist Jean Genet, Sweet Maladies is set in 1860s Richmond, Virginia, and offers audiences an illuminating and absorbing glimpse into a world of unsettling choices and explosive communities.

Tickets cost $5 for general admission, $3 for students and senior citizens (free to MHC students with ID on opening night). For tickets, call the Box Office at (413) 538-2406. Reserved tickets must be picked up 30 minutes prior to the performance.

Following the April 29 matinee performance will be a colloquium: “Facts and Fiction of Reconstruction” from 3:45 to 5 pm. The colloquium is free and open to the public.

For more information, visit http://www.mtholyoke.edu/omc/acts/events/alexander.html.

Event Details:

Thursday-Saturday, April 27-29, 8 pm
Saturday-Sunday, April 29-30, 2 pm
Place: Rooke Theatre, Mount Holyoke College
Admission: $5 general, $3 students and seniors. MHC students free with ID opening night.

Box Office: (413) 538-2406 or rooke-boxoffice@mtholyoke.edu

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