Flynn Center for the Performing Arts — Project Initiator and Commissioner
Five St. Louis theater companies are joining forces this week for a free program of script-in-hand readings exploring the state of American democracy, timed just days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. The nine short plays, staged at Grand Center as part of the High Low Reading Room program, touch on scenarios ranging from a U.S. border agent to banned books to an independent journalist clashing with a local politician.
The St. Louis event is one local branch of a much larger undertaking called Women+ on the Edge of Democracy, a nationwide initiative inviting communities across the country and beyond to stage short plays about democracy ahead of the midterms, according to democracy.flynnvt.org. As reported by St. Louis Public Radio, the local readings bring together St. Louis Actors, That Uppity Theatre Company, Bread and Roses Missouri, Moonstone Theatre Company and Subversive Theatricals for a Thursday night that combines performance, discussion and socializing, organizers say.
A Script Drawn From Real Life at a QuikTrip
The nine plays performed in St. Louis were selected from 34 works newly written for Women+ on the Edge of Democracy events, per the station’s report. Among the performers is Carmen Garcia, a Ladue resident and actor of Mexican descent, who said her scene reflected on feeling menaced by a state trooper at a QuikTrip several weeks earlier, according to the same account…