UCRJ presents a staged reading of The Turnaway Play, in partnership with The Station Theatre and the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, directed by Christiana Molldrem Harkulich. Sponsored in part by an Urbana Arts & Culture Grant.
While this program is free, because there is limited seating in our venues, we are asking attendees to RSVP here: https://forms.gle/8Kh5H8N967DUf3MXA
Performances:
Sat, Nov 8th: 7:30pm at The Station Theatre, 223 N Broadway Ave, Urbana
Sun, Nov 9th: 1:30pm at the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, 600 S Gregory, Urbana (The Sunday performance will also be live-streamed, please see calendar posting for Nov. 9th for the registration information).
The Turnaway Play is about what really happens when people are denied access to abortion.
An urgent issue comes to life onstage through humor, drama, and audience participation. The play is inspired and informed by the groundbreaking Turnaway Study, conducted by Dr. Diana Greene Foster, a 2023 MacArthur Fellow and researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Foster followed 1,000 women from across the country for ten years and obtained the first scientific results on the consequences people face when either having or being denied an abortion. The main finding of the Turnaway Study is that receiving an abortion does not harm the health and wellbeing of women, but in fact, being denied an abortion results in worse financial, health and family outcomes.
Cast:
June Clark Eubanks
Elizabeth Drews
Maggie Kinnamon
Courtney Raymond-Malcolm
Erin Roux
Andrea Rundell
Mariana Seda
Kaila Simpson
Heather Smith-Holley
Jamie Tucker
Characters in the play are based on
Turnaway Study subjects and members of the research team. The play uses the words and experiences of these real people to bust myths and reduce abortion stigma. Drama, humor, and audience participation make it an engaging and thought-provoking theatrical event.