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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260423
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SUMMARY:Patriots of Color Exhibit at American Ancestors' Family Heritage Experience
DESCRIPTION:In observance of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution\, American Ancestors’ Family Heritage Experience unveils “Patriots of Color\,” a major new exhibition opening Thursday\, April 23\, at 97 Newbury Street\, Boston. The exhibit brings long-overlooked stories of Black\, Native\, and multiracial individuals into full view—revealing their vital roles in the founding of our nation and the living descendants who carry their legacies forward today. \nThousands of Black men fought in the American Revolution—an estimated 5\,000 to 9\,000 for the Patriot cause and as many as 20\,000 supporting the British\, many seeking freedom from enslavement—yet their contributions remain underrepresented in traditional accounts of the nation’s founding. Set against the backdrop of Boston’s central role in the Revolution\, “Patriots of Color” highlights profiles of 26 individuals—two from each of the original 13 colonies—whose service\, labor\, leadership\, and resistance shaped the Revolutionary cause in ways rarely taught or remembered today. Through original documents\, immersive digital experiences\, and contemporary artistic interpretation\, the exhibition reframes the Revolution as a far more complex and inclusive struggle for independence. \nA centerpiece of the exhibition is a large-scale interactive digital map of the 13 colonies\, which invites visitors to tap and explore information about 26 individual Patriots\, represented by silhouettes designed by teenage artists from the Cambridge Community Art Center’s Teen Public Art Program. Interactive screens about the patriots reveal biographical details\, service histories\, and—most powerfully—their connection to modern-day living descendants\, some of whom are expected to attend the exhibition’s opening events. Also on view are original 18th- and 19th-century manuscripts\, military muster rolls\, family Bibles\, and historic engravings—archival materials that bring overlooked Revolutionary lives into focus and reveal the research process behind their rediscovery. \nThe exhibit is part of American Ancestors’ 10 Million Names initiative\, which aims to recover the names and lives of enslaved people through archival research. \n“What makes ‘Patriots of Color’ distinctive is not only who these individuals were\, but how we know them\,” said Ryan Woods\, President and CEO of American Ancestors. “This exhibition shows that history is not fixed or finished. Through documents\, research\, and genealogy\, it is possible to uncover real\, personal connections to the past—and\, in doing so\, better understand our present.” \nSilhouettes of Legacy \nReinforcing the exhibition’s themes of interpretation and intergenerational storytelling\, “Patriots of Color” includes a collaborative component with the Cambridge Community Art Center’s Teen Public Art Program. Founded in 1937\, the Community Art Center has long served as a creative anchor in Cambridge\, empowering young people through public art and community-rooted expression. \nFor “Patriots of Color\,” students were invited to create imaginative silhouette artwork inspired by historical profiles of Patriots. The resulting silhouette portraits draw on an historic artistic tradition that predates photography\, when profile portraits were an accessible way to preserve a person’s likeness. In this context\, the form carries particular resonance: silhouettes assert presence\, a demonstration that a life was lived. \nDisplayed alongside the historical narratives\, and each artist’s biography\, these contemporary works place today’s youth artists in dialogue with Revolutionary era lives. Their inclusion underscores the exhibition’s broader message that history is not static—it is continually interpreted\, expanded\, and made visible across generations. \nAdditional exhibition elements explore how Patriots of Color contributed beyond military service\, the difficult choices—or lack of choice—between Patriot and Loyalist allegiances\, and the painstaking process of reconstructing lives through muster rolls\, family Bibles\, pension files\, and other primary sources. Throughout\, visitors are encouraged to see themselves not just as observers of history\, but as participants in reclaiming it. \n“Patriots of Color” remains on view through December 31\, 2026\, with an opening celebration and public programs planned in conjunction with Revolution 250 commemorations in Boston. \nExhibit Highlights:\n\nPatriots of Color profiles—two from each of the original 13 colonies—featured through an expansive interactive digital map\nConnections between Revolutionary-era Patriots and living descendants\, bringing the story of the Revolution into the present day\nOriginal manuscripts\, muster rolls\, engravings\, and family records that demonstrate how historical lives are recovered through genealogical research\nA dynamic touchscreen experience inviting visitors to explore service\, resistance\, and legacy across the colonies\, with direct links to American Ancestors’ 10 Million Names initiative\nA collaborative public art installation featuring silhouette works created by Community Art Center Teen Public Art Program artists\, interpreting individual Patriot stories through contemporary creative expression\n\n“Patriots of Color: Reclaiming Stories of Courage\, Resistance\, and Legacy” reframes the American Revolution through the lens of family history—demonstrating that the nation’s founding stories are not fixed in the past\, but can be rediscovered\, reinterpreted\, and reclaimed through research\, documents\, and lived connection. \nExhibit Opening:        April 23\, 2026 \nOn View:                    Through December 31\, 2026\, Tuesday through Saturday\, 10 am to 6 pm \nLocation:                    Family Heritage Experience at American Ancestors\, 97 Newbury Street\, Boston\, MA \nAdmission:                 $10 for adults. Free admission for children under 12. American Ancestors members receive free admission. \nDiscover Your Own History: Visitors are encouraged to explore their own family stories through American Ancestors’ research services and the 10 Million Names initiative\, which seeks to recover and restore the identities of enslaved people through historical records. \nPlanning Your Visit:  The Family Heritage Experience and the gift shop on the first floor of American Ancestors at 97 Newbury Street\, Boston\, MA\, are open Tuesday through Saturday\, from 10 am to 6 pm. The facility is located near Copley Square and the Arlington and Copley Green line T stations. For more information\, including accessibility and amenities\, visit fhe.americanancestors.org. \nAbout the Family Heritage Experience  \nThe Family Heritage Experience—an interactive\, state-of-the-art exhibition that introduces visitors to the joy of family history research—was launched in 2025 by American Ancestors®\, a national center for family history\, heritage\, and culture. The Family Heritage Experience is located on the first floor of American Ancestors’ headquarters at 97 Newbury Street\, in Boston\, Massachusetts. For more information\, visit fhe.americanancestors.org. \nAbout American Ancestors \nAmerican Ancestors® is a national nonprofit center for family history\, heritage & culture based in Boston\, Massachusetts\, that has been setting the gold standard for genealogical research since its founding in 1845. Today\, American Ancestors serves 400K+ members and subscribers through AmericanAncestors.org\, one of the world’s largest online collections of family history resources. In 2025\, American Ancestors launched the Family Heritage Experience\, an interactive\, state-of-the-art exhibition that introduces visitors to the joy of family history research\, located at 97 Newbury Street at our headquarters in Boston. American Ancestors is also home to the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center\, which preserves New England’s Jewish history\, and 10 Million Names\, a project dedicated to finding the names of the enslaved men\, women\, and children in pre- and post-colonial America before emancipation. For more information\, visit americanancestors.org. \nAbout 10 Million Names \n10 Million Names is dedicated to recovering the names of the estimated ten million men\, women\, and children of African descent who were enslaved in pre- and post-colonial America (specifically\, the territory that would become the United States) between the 1500s and 1865. 10 Million Names is engaging a collaborative network of expert genealogists\, cultural organizations\, and community-based family historians. Together we will amplify the voices of people who have been telling their family stories for centuries\, connect researchers and data partners with people seeking answers to family history questions\, and expand access to data\, resources\, and information about enslaved African Americans. For more information\, visit 10millionnames.org.
URL:https://mcgrathpr.com/event/patriots-of-color-exhibit/
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261105
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261123
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SUMMARY:Boston Playwrights' Theatre's Fall Rep Festival
DESCRIPTION:Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (BPT)\, Boston University’s award-winning professional theatre dedicated to new work\, presents its “Fall Rep Festival\,” featuring two new plays running in repertory November 5 through 22 at 949 Commonwealth Avenue\, Boston: Yide Cai’s “White Phoenix\,” directed by Dmitry Troyanovsky\, and Rachel Beth Greene’s “Jessica of Venice\,” directed by Josh Glenn-Kayden. The pairing brings together two distinct worlds: a Chinese family torn apart across an ocean\, and an Orthodox Jewish community set in the present day. Performed on the same stage\, the two plays ask a shared question: what is the cost of crossing the distance between two worlds? \n\n\n\n\n\nTold by just two actors\, “White Phoenix” is a sweeping family drama that unfolds across decades and continents. The play follows a Chinese orphan who vows to find the sister he lost\, tracing his path to adulthood in China alongside a dangerous entanglement with the daughter of a powerful political family. Meanwhile\, his sister comes of age an ocean away\, adopted into a prominent American senatorial family and drawn into a secret romance of her own. As their two stories finally converge\, the siblings’ long-awaited reunion becomes a mirror for the fraught\, complicated relationship between their two countries. \nCai\, whose writing draws on classical Chinese drama\, particularly “The Peony Pavilion\,” built the epic for a cast of two on purpose. “The audience will serve as witness to the effort of two actors embodying four distinct\, almost opposite characters\,” he says. “It’s this magic of making something out of nothing. That’s what’s always special about theater: the imagination. Even though the two siblings spend the entire play trying to find each other\, the two actors playing them are together on stage the whole time.” \n\n\nCai is writing against the habit of treating nations as people. “We tend to assume the country or the government and the people who live in it are the same thing\,” he explains. “Instead of symbols\, my characters are the opposite: prisoners and victims of the countries they belong to. There is China everywhere in America\, like TikTok\, bubble tea and rare earth minerals\, and America everywhere in China\, like Starbucks and Hollywood movies. But neither side really wants to talk about it with clarity.” \n\n\nSet in the present day but steeped in Early Modern echoes\, “Jessica of Venice” follows a group of Orthodox Jewish schoolgirls who discover a banned copy of Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” and become fascinated by its rebellious runaway daughter. For one restless teen caught between her tight-knit community and a budding crush outside it\, the discovery starts to blur the line between the story on the page and the life she’s beginning to imagine for herself. \nGreene\, a self-described Shakespeare buff\, grew up in the observant Jewish world she depicts. “Jessica is so often portrayed as selfish and coldhearted towards her father\,” she says. “But rarely is she considered within her context: as a curious\, sheltered young girl with big dreams. I too was raised in the observant Jewish world and understand how it feels to struggle with the practices of traditional religious life as an ambitious\, inquisitive teenager.” She links the play’s close reading of Shakespeare to Torah study\, where students read “between the lines” of texts centered on male protagonists to expand their understanding of the world. \n\n\n\n\n\nGreene writes with outsiders in mind. “I am acutely aware that most audience members will have never set foot in a Hasidic Jewish community\,” she notes. “Audiences should expect not to know every single word spoken onstage. But if I’ve done my job right\, that will not stand in the way of them understanding the story – in fact\, it might even help.” She adds that the play has no villain: “I believe these characters all act from a place of good\, if often mismatched\, intentions.” \nStaged side by side\, the two plays speak to each other. “A theme we have discovered that runs between our stories is the idea of characters who inhabit two separate worlds\, and the yearning to reach through the space between them\,” says Greene. For Cai\, the pairing points to a shared warning: “Heaven is in the making\, in the everyday life we already have\, with the people already around us. The moment we idolize or covet an elsewhere\, or an ‘other\,’ we create our own downfall.” \nBoth playwrights resist an easy verdict on what separation costs. “Before we ask whether the cost was worth it\, we need to acknowledge and honor the cost\, and the suffering of the people who bore it\,” says Cai. Greene leaves the question with the audience: “These conflicts are too intricate and fraught for a ‘right answer.’ I hope the audience leaves the theater pondering this very question.” \n“On the one hand\, it is devastating watching characters in these plays be willing to sacrifice almost anything to escape from the communities that made them\,” said BPT Artistic Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian. “But on the other\, there is something inspiring about characters who dream of a better world\, and believe\, against all odds\, that there is a place somewhere that will offer them the opportunity to feel fully themselves. It’s an inherently optimistic – and very American – kind of dramatic action.” \nThe creative teams include Stage Managers Jess Brennan* (“White Phoenix”) and Erin Lerch* (“Jessica of Venice”). *Appearing through an Agreement between Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and Actors’ Equity Association\, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. \n\n\nFall Rep Festival Details \n“White Phoenix” by Yide Cai\, directed by Dmitry Troyanovsky\, featuring Philip Zeng* as Li CunYi and Gabriel Bradford\, with Serena Zhu as Li CunXin and Zhao YanYan. \n*Appearing through an Agreement between Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and Actors’ Equity Association\, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. \nPerformances:  Select dates from Nov. 5 through 22 \n\n\nThursday\, November 5 at 7:00 pm \nFriday\, November 6 at 8:00 pm \nSaturday\, November 7 at 8:00 pm \nSaturday\, November 14 at 2:00 pm** \n\n\nSunday\, November 15 at 7:00 pm** \nThursday\, November 19 at 7:00 pm \nSaturday\, November 21 at 8:00 pm** \nSunday\, November 22 at 2:00 pm** \n\n\nPay-What-You-Want Previews: Thurs.\, Nov. 5\, 7 pm\, and Fri.\, Nov. 6\, 8 pm \nPost-show Conversation: Thursday\, November 19\, after the 7 pm performance \nContent transparency: “White Phoenix” contains an extended depiction of a consensual romantic relationship between adopted siblings. No violence is depicted onstage\, but the play contains descriptions of war\, political violence\, and international child trafficking. Details\, including spoilers: bostonplaywrights.org/ct/phoenix \n\n\n\n“Jessica of Venice” by Rachel Beth Greene\, directed by Josh Glenn-Kayden\, featuring Lindsey Wildstein as Shaina; Margo Segal as Aliza and Brooke; Ella Blumenthal as Hannah and Kaiden; Gavin Mariani as Logan; Dave Rabinow* as Shlomo; Jessica Golden as Rivka; and Luke Avilez Meisel as Rabbi Farkas and Mr. Burski. \n*Appearing through an Agreement between Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and Actors’ Equity Association\, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. \nPerformances: Select dates from Nov. 12 through 22 \n\n\nThursday\, November 12 at 7:00 pm \nFriday\, November 13 at 8:00 pm \nSaturday\, November 14 at 8:00 pm** \nSunday\, November 15 at 2:00 pm** \n\n\nWednesday\, November 18 at 7:00 pm \nFriday\, November 20 at 8:00 pm \nSaturday\, November 21 at 2:00 pm** \nSunday\, November 22 at 7:00 pm** \n\n\nPay-What-You-Want Previews: Thursday\, November 12\, 7 pm\, and Friday\, November 13\, 8 pm \nOpening/Press Night: Saturday\, November 14\, 8 pm\, followed by the Fall Rep Opening Reception \nPost-show Conversation: Saturday\, November 21\, after the 2 pm performance \nContent transparency: “Jessica of Venice” includes depictions of religious oppression\, antisemitism and misogyny. No violence is depicted onstage\, but the play does contain descriptions of graphic content including a sexual assault. Details\, including spoilers: bostonplaywrights.org/ct/jessica \n\n\n\nThe Fall Rep Pass** allows audiences to experience both plays on the same day on four dates: Saturday\, November 14 (“White Phoenix” at 2 pm\, “Jessica of Venice” at 8 pm\, followed by the Fall Rep Opening Reception); Sunday\, November 15 (“Jessica of Venice” at 2 pm\, “White Phoenix” at 7 pm); Saturday\, November 21 (“Jessica of Venice” at 2 pm\, “White Phoenix” at 8 pm); and Sunday\, November 22 (“White Phoenix” at 2 pm\, “Jessica of Venice” at 7 pm). The Fall Rep Pass\, $50 for both plays\, is available at bostonplaywrights.org. \nTickets are available exclusively at bostonplaywrights.org. Single tickets: $40 adults; $25 BU faculty/staff\, veterans and seniors (62+); $15 students with valid ID; free student rush for all students with valid ID\, available day-of-performance at the Box Office. Each production also offers Pay-What-You-Want previews\, where audiences select the amount they pay\, including $0. For group rates\, contact Matt Hecker at mattheck@bu.edu. \nBoston Playwrights’ Theatre is the only authorized seller of tickets for its productions. To ensure fair pricing and guaranteed entry\, tickets should be purchased exclusively through bostonplaywrights.org or the BPT box office. Tickets purchased through third-party sellers or unauthorized websites may be invalid\, overpriced\, or fraudulent. \nFor tickets\, the complete performance schedule\, and more information about the Fall Rep Festival\, visit bostonplaywrights.org\, and follow Boston Playwrights’ Theatre on Facebook and Instagram. \nAbout Boston Playwrights’ Theatre \n\nBoston Playwrights’ Theatre (BPT) is an award-winning professional theatre dedicated to new work for the stage\, founded in 1981 by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. Part of the Boston University Office for the Arts and led by Artistic Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian\, BPT produces a full season of new plays each year\, developmental readings of works in progress\, and the iconic Boston Theater Marathon\, an annual all-day “marathon” of new ten-minute plays by New England playwrights. BPT alumni have seen their work produced on Broadway\, on Netflix\, and at regional theatres across the country and around the world; they include Melinda Lopez\, Ronán Noone\, Molly Smith Metzler\, Alexis Scheer\, Eliana Pipes and Karen Zacarías. For more information\, visit bostonplaywrights.org\, and follow Boston Playwrights’ Theatre on Facebook and Instagram.
URL:https://mcgrathpr.com/event/boston-playwrights-theatres-fall-rep-festival-2026/
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