Harriet² Harriet Tubman's Dream

Harriet2 is back by popular demand to delight audiences once again. The delightful stories of Harriet Tubman and Harriet Beecher Stowe are coming to Three Rivers Community College in February 2010. Come join the Three Rivers Community and explore the new Campus, while honoring Black History Month and Women's History Month.

By 1858, Harriet Tubman was a fugitive slave working with the Underground Railroad helping to free the enslaved in the South. To help support herself, the fugitive slave community and to finance her rescue missions, she worked as a cook, domestic servant and went on speaking tours in New England putting on dramatic storytelling performances of her life. At parlor socials in private homes or at Church Meetings, she performed to great acclaim for many prominent abolitionists, trancendentalists, suffragists and the literary elite especially in the Boston, Massachusetts’ area. The play opens with Harriet Tubman standing in a parlor in a private home in Boston during the year 1863. She has been helping the Union Army as a nurse and is on leave from her duties. Since the army doesn't pay her, she has returned north to raise money to support herself and her work by giving one of her storytelling performances to a crowd of anti-slavery activists.

Aunt Hattie's House

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) is best known for her influential novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, despite penning over 30 other novels. As the primary breadwinner in her family, she was truly one of the first 'working moms.'

Setting: 1864, Oakholm, Harriet Beecher Stowe's new home in Hartford, Connecticut. Harriet has returned to the land of her childhood an international celebrity, looking for quieter times. The audience is invited to assume the role of a biographer, just one of the curious who still seek her out.

Director Aaron Arbiter is the 2009-2010 Artistic Director of Brandeis University’s award-winning Free Play Theatre Cooperative. His directing credits at Brandeis include City of Angels and John Patrick Shanley's Savage in Limbo. Aaron is currently an Advanced Directing student at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT, where last semester he was a student at the National Theater Institute.

Playwright Lisa Giordano is a current board member of the Emerson Theater Collaborative and a playwright. Her play, True Nature Of All Being, received an Honorable Mention in the Clauder Competition, the New England Playwrights Festival held in Maine and was chosen as a finalist receiving an Honorable Mention in the International Eco-drama Playwrights Festival in California. Locally, two of her musical plays for children, Rock Around the Sound and To Bee or Not To Bee and Other Bug Tales were performed at the Garde Arts Center in New London, CT as part of their Kids On Stage program. Her plays have been work-shopped at UConn’s Avery Point Theater and have received staged readings through The Planning Stage and by the students of The Writer's Block, Ink of New London, CT where she is a member of the faculty and board. Ms. Giordano is an associate member of the Dramatist Guild and belongs to The Writers' Roundtable of Southeastern Connecticut.

Cast

Camilla Ross (Harriet Tubman) is the current president and co-founder of the Emerson Theater Collaborative, and a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, MA. Camilla spent time studying with the Actor’s Workshop of Boston under the direction of Lila Sadd and Jerry Michaels. Drawing on over 20 years of theatrical experience, ranging from commercials to regional theater, Camilla is leading and shaping ETC from the ground up as one of the first professional theaters in southeastern Connecticut. She is the theatrical advisor and acting coach for the SPAG Players at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, CT. She is a current board and choral member with the Connecticut Lyric Opera of New London. Camilla is past board member and Acting Instructor for the Writer’s Block, Ink of New London, CT. Camilla is currently a part-time business faculty member of the Three Rivers Community College, teaching a variety of business courses. She currently sits on the Emerson Alumni Board, as one of the Co-presidents of the CT Chapter. As an actress, she was seen most recently in John Patrick Shanley’s play Doubt, playing the role of Mrs. Mueller.

Emma Palzere-Rae, actress/playwright, co-founder ETC, has over 20 years experience working in all areas of professional theater including performance, artistic administration, Playwrighting and producing. Ms. Palzere-Rae worked extensively in the New York City entertainment community for over fifteen years, most recently serving as the Artistic Director of Plays for Living, a 60 year-old not-for-profit theater company that uses drama as a tool for social change. As an actress, Ms. Palzere-Rae has appeared Off-Broadway, at regional and stock theaters, and has been spotted in various films, commercials and soaps over the years. Locally, audiences may have seen her at the Centennial Theater (Simsbury), NewGate Theatre (Providence) and as a tour guide and scene player in Mystic Seaport’s Lantern Light Tours. As a producer, Ms. Palzere-Rae is the founder of Be Well Productions which tours several critically-acclaimed one-woman plays to schools, libraries, senior communities, civic organizations and professional theaters. These historical portrayals bring to life characters as diverse as Emily Dickinson and Harriet Beecher Stowe. After fifteen years in New York City, Ms. Palzere-Rae returned to her home state of Connecticut in 2003 when she joined the staff of the Chorus of Westerly (RI) as Executive Director. Ms. Palzere-Rae has portrayed Harriet Beecher Stowe since 2000, when Aunt Hattie’s House was commissioned by the Missouri Humanities Council for its Civil War Chautauqua. Since that time, Ms. Palzere-Rae has played Mrs. Stowe to countless audience members throughout the northeast and Midwest, engaging them in conversations about being a 19th century working mother and activist. Ms. Palzere-Rae is proud to have played Sister Aloysius in ETC's inaugural production of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt.

Production Staff

Illustrator Sarah Paolucci is a freelance illustrator, designer, and artist. She received a BFA from the Hartford Art School and has studied illustration, painting, drawing and graphic design techniques from a very early age. Although illustration is her passion, Sarah is also an award-winning graphic designer. She has a successful track record creating advertising, packaging design, literature, logos and other brand-building programs for consumer and business-to-business clients. Please visit her website at www.sarahpaolucci.com for more samples of her work.

Stage Manager Vic Pancier graduated from Emerson College with a degree in Theater. To his credit he has been involved in over 100 community theater productions, and received numerous O'Neill Awards for directing, lighting and costume design. In the past he worked for American Musical Theater. Vic currently serves on two community theater boards, and Is the recipient of the Brenda Rummel Award for outstanding service to community theater.

• Lighting DesignerRoy Bourque
• Set DesignerAaron Arbiter
• Set ConstructionPeter Stand
• Harriet's CostumeRhonda Strand
• Harriet Beecher Stowe’s CostumeMarion T. Brady
• Executive ProducerCamilla Ross
• House ManagerAlex McCune