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News & Press Releases
Oct 26, 2008
NORTH ADAMS, MASS – Literary actor Stephen Collins will perform the life and work of “America’s poet,” Walt Whitman on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA).
“Unlaunch’d Voices: An Evening with Walt Whitman” will begin at 7 p.m. in Murdock Hall, Room 218. The event is free and open to the public.
Critics have hailed his “stunning performance,” and said that “Collins’s resemblance to Whitman resulted from both his uncanny physical similarity to the poet and his fluency with the poetry.”
Since his first performance in 1998, Collins has presented Whitman to audiences throughout the Northeast. This is Collins’ second performance at MCLA. In 2004 he performed to a packed Smith House audience.
“‘Unlaunch’d Voices’ strives to capture what we interpret to be the most vital contributions of the man,” Collins wrote. “To avoid any misrepresentation, we chose to keep any broad historical fiction or needless theatrical conventions out of this play. Instead we rely on poetry, which surely stands on its own, and on as much of Walt’s actual words and dialogue as possible.”
Conceived by Collins, the one-man play was written and directed by Michael Keamy. The play opens with the elderly Whitman on the evening of his 70th birthday. The audience is a visitor in his room as he prepares for his birthday celebration. During his reminiscences, he transforms into the younger poet. He then revisits the experiences and early writing that culminated in 1855 in the revolutionary first edition of “Leaves of Grass.”
Later, the action moves to the Civil War years, when Whitman nursed wounded soldiers in the hospitals. Through poetry and readings of actual letters, the audience experiences his development as a poet, humanist, and commentator on the American experience.
“An Evening with Walt Whitman” is sponsored by the MCLA English/ Communications Department. For more information, call 413-662-5371, or go to www.mcla.edu .
