NATIONAL READING EVENT OF "It Can't Happen Here"

Burning Clown Productions
joins theatres across the USA to read
IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE
by Sinclair Lewis' and John C. Moffitt
celebrating the
75th anniversary
of the Federal Theatre Project
and it's historical production of
this powerful drama.

BCP presents
a free play reading event
on Sunday night, October 23rd @7pm
in the

Ellington Room
of
Manhattan Plaza,
400 West 43rd St. 2nd floor
(between 9th and 10th avenues)

Admission is free
reservations are required
to gain entrance to the building:
(212) 591-0358.

Featuring: Spencer Scott Barros, James Edward Becton, Tom Berdik, Evan Bernardin, Katie Braden, David Palmer Brown, Kelly Anne Burns, Lori Faiella, Charles E. Gerber, Ken Glickfeld, Richard Kent Green, Tim Scott Harris, Heather Massie, Jeff Paul, Gerianne Raphael, Tracy Shar, Mike Smith Rivera, Georgia Southern-Penn, Ben Sumrall, Fred Velde, Jon Weber, & Shaun Bennet Wilson

Readings in theaters, art centers and living rooms across the country will follow the spirit of the original production, which opened in 22 theaters in 18 US cities on October 27, 1936 and was seen by more than 316,000 people.

There will be readings in Chicago, Los Angeles, Hollywood, New York, Louisville, Cleveland, Syracuse, Kansas City, Reno, and many other cities

The play envisions a fictional America where a powerful senator becomes a dictator, abolishing labor unions, free speech, and a free press. His sinister allies, known only as “the Corpos,” recruit unemployed and dissatisfied young people and intimidate anyone who opposes their agenda.

The 2011 national reading project was initiated by Darryl Henriques, formerly of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and is co-sponsored by the SFMT and Dell'Arte International. Henriques hopes to call attention to an important piece of American history and to alert today’s audiences to The Federal Theater Project, which employed theater workers, circus performers, cabaret and vaudeville acts a part of the WPA. Those who've seen Tim Robbins' 1999 movie "The Cradle Will Rock" were introduced to that incredible time when Uncle Sam became the greatest producer of plays in the United States and there was for a fleeting moment a National Theater administered by the brilliant and indefatigable Hallie Flanagan.