Acting Our Age: Voices of the Harbors
In development/production January-November 2024
Holley Hall, Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center, Sarasota FL
Sponsored by Plymouth Harbor / Jeff Weatherhead, CEO
Celebrating the life and work of Graham Smith
New project in development for 2025
Graham appeared in over 200 plays and eleven films, and was a long-time company member with Charlotte Repertory Theatre, People's Light in Philadelphia, Florida Rep, and The Works. He was a force, a friend, and a champion of the arts, education, and professional regional theatre. Read more about Graham's work here.
Looking forward to a reschedule of Shea Sizemore's Bygone Billy after its premiere at RiverRun International Film Festival was postponed. (The cast of the film includes R. Keith Harris, Danielle Deadwyler, Craig Hensley, Tonya Bludsworth, Brian LaFontaine, Rebecca Koon, Maria Howell, Steve Umberger.)
Call Me By My Name
~ A film about the creativity of the unhoused community ~
Directed by Steve Umberger
Director of Photography Jay Thomas
Developed and produced 2018-2023 by The Works
Developed and produced 2018-2023 by The Works
Developed through the StreetsmARTs program
Latest screening: Community Impact Series Fall 2024, Independent Picture House
Archive Projects / News
In 2018 a group of people ages 73-95 began work on a 15 month project to document their lives, led by Gerontologist Lyndall Hare and Director Steve Umberger. The results were a professionally produced 90-minute stage event and performance film, One Century Seven Voices (2019). It began the Acting Our Age series, which has since seen four more groups and stage events / films in Charlotte and Sarasota: Voices of the Pandemic (2021), Using Our Voices (2022), and Voices of the Harbors (2024). See the Acting Our Age page for more.
The World Only Spins Forward
Alongside the 2018 Broadway revival of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, the book The World Only Spins Forward (Bloomsbury) by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois, was published, telling how Angels changed the world through interviews with 200 people who have worked on the landmark plays, including Steve Umberger and the Charlotte Rep team.
The professional area premiere of Lucas Hnath's nationally acclaimed play was produced by The Playworks Group and The Pine Hill Project at Blumenthal Performing Arts and was a six month project that involved participation by all faiths and denominations.
The original musical by best selling novelist Clyde Edgerton and Drama Desk Award winner Mike Craver was developed by Playworks over a decade in three productions, at the York Theatre Company, NY, and at Blumenthal Performing Arts
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