Public Reading of “The American Five”

Playwright, director, & educator Aaron Posner and actor, director, producer, & activist Chess Jakobs (U-M Acting alum, 2018) join the Department of Theatre & Drama for a workshop of Chess’ play THE AMERICAN FIVE, which will receive a full production at Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C. next season. This workshop will help to develop the script for that production.

The cast for this public reading of the play is comprised of SMTD students and faculty.

The American Five offers an incisive look into a single, society-shifting moment in American history while turning our perspective toward a horizon of plurality. This play’s kaleidoscope structure examines the multi-generational relationship of Black and Jewish Americans. When a perspective-challenging professor invokes the “Rules of Engagement” inside the classroom, tensions rise over a discussion about anti-Semitic headlines. A viable framework for understanding present political discord and social paradigms is found in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.