The Parliament of Poets, which takes audiences on a journey to discover universal peace and commonality, plays a limited engagement Off-Broadway February 15-March 2 at The Actor’s Temple Theatre.
Poet-critic Frederick Glaysher, who is the literary executor of the Robert Hayden Estate, wrote and stars in the solo show, directed by Michigan Michael Chekhov's Jeff Thomakos.
Blending the chanting role of the ancient Greek rhapsode’s performance of Homer with the modern style of dramatic reading by Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe, Poets takes place partly on the moon, at the Apollo 11 landing site, and sends the main character, the Poet of the Moon, on a journey to the seven continents to learn from all of the spiritual and wisdom traditions of humankind.
Glaysher performs The Poet of the Moon, Don Quixote, Merlin, Black Elk, Chief Seattle, Du Fu, Faerie Queene, Tolstoy, Dante, Milton, Job, Vyasa, Rumi, Borges, Sogolon, and other poets as they seek the meaning of our common humanity.
The 90-minute production also includes musical interludes, literary and cosmic projections, and a vision of humanity coming together in peace and global community. Themes include the power of women and the female spirit across cultures, the nature of science and religion, and the “two cultures” of science and the humanities.
Glaysher said in an earlier statement, “We human beings know how to cooperate and pull together when necessary. We’ve done it many times through the millennia, and we can do it again on the entire planet. The problems and the solutions are in our mind. Just a little fine-tuning might make all the difference. So, when I was in my mid-twenties, I thought perhaps a journey to the moon might help. And as a great world city and theatre capital, New York seems the perfect place to perform and chant my epic tale of all the great poets of the many civilizations on earth coming together in peace and global community. If they can do it, so can we.”
The Parliament of Poets is produced by Apollo's Troupe with general management by Edmund Gaynes. The production stage manager is Matthew Palmer, and the assistant stage manager is Josh Iacovelli.
Show times are Thursdays at 7 PM and Saturdays at 2 PM. Visit Telecharge.com.
