Charles Dumas • 9/11 A Day in the Life of A People

9/11 A Day in the Life of A People written by Charles Dumas will be presented by The Loaves and Fish Theatre Company. Based in part on witness testimony, the play depicts the lives of twelve ordinary people on the morning of Sept., 11, 2001, a year later and seven years later. Excerpts from the play were performed last year at the National Constitution Center in commemoration of events surrounding the 9/11 attacks. This year the play was selected to be part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

Charles Dumas, recently a Fulbright Fellow in the Republic of South Africa, is an associate professor in the School of Theatre at Penn State University. He was also the co-founder and artistic director of the State College Shakespeare Festival. He directed Fences, Colored Museum, and A Raisin in the Sun for Penn State. He also directed Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Romeo and Juliet for SCSF. He is a past recipient of a PCA grant for screenwriting for his original work, Surfacing.

Loaves and Fish Theater Company is a Pennsylvania not-for-profit theatre that is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year. Recent productions include: Revenge of A King written by LAF’s managing director, Herb Newsome, which was critically acclaimed at last year’s NYC’s Fringe Festival; A Visit With Thurgood Marshall, which was performed at Temple Law School and Yale Law School; and Wolf By the Ears, which premiered at the Grahamstown International Festival in South Africa and was work-shopped at the Hedgerow New Play festival this past June.

 9/11 A Day in the Life of A People was first presented at the American School in South Africa on the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. That particular production of the show was sponsored by the United States Consulate General of Capetown for the diplomatic community in the RSA. The American premiere was at Penn State in 2003. It has been performed on the anniversary of the attacks each year since. This is the first year that a full production including a second act will be presented, which depicts the lives of the survivors seven years later.