"The Visitor," a fascinating look at a historic event involving free speech and hate speech, to be performed at the Quick Center for the Arts | Press Releases

"The Visitor," by Carol K. Mack
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, at 8 p.m.
Fairfield University's Wien Experimental Theatre
Free

"The Visitor," Carol K. Mack's gripping play about a German anti-Semite in New York City and the Jewish police officers assigned to protect his right to free speech, will be performed in Fairfield University's Wien Experimental (Black Box) Theatre at the Quick Center for the Arts, on Tuesday, March 19, 2013, at 8 p.m.

Free and open to the public , this lauded work is co-sponsored by Fairfield University's Bennett Center for Judaic Studies and the American Studies Program. The play will be performed by an all-professional cast, and will be directed by Dr. Martha S. LoMonaco, professor of visual and performing arts. Seating is limited and reservations are necessary. Please call the Bennett Center at (203)-254-4000, ext. 2066 .

The play takes place in 1895 when Theodore Roosevelt was Police Commissioner of New York City. Herr Ahlwardt, a rabidly anti-Semitic member of the Reichstag, came from Berlin with the announced purpose of "preaching against the Jews" and he demanded protection. Roosevelt assigned a group of Jewish policemen to be his bodyguards and protect his right to freedom of speech. "The Visitor" is about these policemen, this historical event and its significance.

Mack received a commission from Theatre J and the Foundation for Jewish Culture to write the "The Visitor," and she was greatly assisted by members of the Shomrim Society, an organization of Jewish members of the New York Police Department.

Mack's plays, which have been performed all over the world, include "Territorial Rites," "Postcards," "Esther," and "A Safe Place." They premiered respectively at The American Place Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The White Barn Theatre Foundation, and The Berkshire Theatre Festival in Association with The Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts. In 2006, she conceived and organized a documentary theatre piece in connection with Vital Voices Global Partnership, an NGO that develops and connects women leaders in 80 countries. With a group of award-winning women playwrights, they wove the collaborative documentary theatre piece, "Seven," which has been translated into sixteen languages thus far. Her plays have been published in four separate editions of "Best American Short Plays."

Mack has taught at New York University, Marymount College and Fordham University.

For more information about the Bennett Center, visit http://www.fairfield.edu/judaic/ .

Image: The Visitor," Carol K. Mack's gripping play about an anti-Semite in New York City and the Jewish police officers assigned to protect his free speech, will be performed in Fairfield University's Wien Experimental Theatre at the Quick Center for the Arts, on March 19.