Theater
‘Travisville’
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH Actor and Queens resident Bjorn
DuPaty stars in "Travisville," a new
play written by actor and play-wright
William Jackson Harper,
who fans of the NBC series "The
Good Place" will recognize as the bespectacled
Nigerian ethics professor, Chidi Anagonye.
"Travisville" depicts how a group of black min-isters
grapple with the best way to fight for their
parishioners as they run the risk of being forced
out of their neighborhood by white politicians.
They are being viewed as a detriment to the town's
entertainment value.
An outsider and activist comes to encourage
property owners. Residents of Travisville will debate
whether equality is something that is taken by
force or is achieved slowly over time—a timeless
and timely question.
Although a new play, the story of "Travisville" is
really a recap of history. New York audiences will
travel down to the South and back to the 1960s
Civil Rights Movement and watch a story that
parallels the history of Dallas, TX.
When the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964,
news of it was received with eruptions of violence
in towns across the United States, particularly in the
South. But the city of Dallas prided itself on hav-ing
more peaceful race relations than other cities.
Bombings had rocked the city a decade earlier,
but local black ministers came to a truce with
the white politicians in power. The city remained
segregated, and black citizens didn’t need to fear
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for their lives. When a plan to expand the city’s
historic fairgrounds required the displacement of
the mostly black neighborhood around it, residents
had to choose between going quietly and preserv-ing
the peace, or protect their neighborhood and
risk violence.
Bjorn, a resident of Queens, but Chicago native
has been acting on television and on the New York
stage for the past decade and has received acclaim
for his role the title character in "Julius Caesar."
Tickets for "Travisville" are now on sale for $30,
with tickets for students and seniors available for
$25. The performance schedule is as follows:
Wednesday – Saturday at 7pm, Saturday at 2pm,
and Sunday at 5pm. Tickets can be purchased at
www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org.
/www.qns.com
/www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org
