On Friday, September 17, join LancasterHistory virtually for a staged reading of the political drama, Now’s the Time, by Jean Parvin Bordewich. Directed by Jennifer Welch and performed by talented actors from across the United States, the drama centers on Thaddeus Stevens, Lydia Hamilton Smith, and the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson set in Lancaster, PA and Washington, D.C. during the early years of Reconstruction.

The nation is in crisis. The President is out of control. Congress is locked in a fierce contest against him and his supporters. Hanging on the outcome are the fate of the President, a race of people, and the future of the country.

After the devastating Civil War and assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the United States faced a critical decision: Under what terms would former Confederate states return to the Union? Vice President, now President, Andrew Johnson was determined to pardon the rebels, guarantee white supremacy, and readmit the states quickly. Rep. Thaddeus Stevens led “radicals” in Congress who fought relentlessly for a different vision: a new society of full racial equality, where Black Americans would have real economic and political power, including ownership of land confiscated from Confederates, education, suffrage, and election to public office. The titanic political battle between them culminated in the first impeachment and acquittal of a president, and to more than 150 years of continued violence and discrimination against Black Americans.

About The Playwright
Jean Parvin Bordewich (pronounced “bor-de-wick”) explores the intersection of history, politics and the moral choices of people in public life in her plays. Her own political career spans 20 years in senior positions in the Senate and House of Representatives, nine years as a town council member, and her campaign for a seat in Congress. Before “Now’s the Time,” she wrote and produced “Hunt,” a play about the tragic blackmail of U.S. Senator Lester Hunt in the 1950s by allies of Senator Joseph McCarthy. It had several public readings, including one hosted by Senator Tammy Baldwin in the U.S. Senate. In early 2021, she was commissioned to write two short plays about political conflict for a Washington, D.C. theater series, “Difficult Conversations: Bridging the Divide.” Jean and her husband live in San Francisco.

About the Director

Jennifer Welch is the founder and creator of StoryWorks Theater, a documentary theater company that transforms investigative journalism into theater and audio dramas. Since launching StoryWorks in 2013, Welch has developed plays with Reveal and The Center for Investigative Reporting, HuffPost, The Kansas City Star, NJTV, KCPT, The Arizona Daily Star, and Mississippi Today. Each play has reached a different region of the country and helped to drive social change by exposing America’s structural inequality and the costs of human injustice. In doing so, her work reveals not only the factual truths, which are verified by deep investigative reporting but the emotional revelations that theater conveys. She is also a contributing producer for Reveal, the Peabody Award-winning public radio show and podcast from CIR and PRX. Welch is a 2017 recipient of the Midwest Innocence Project’s Sean O’Brien Freedom Award and was named a 2020 Preserver of Mississippi Culture by the Mississippi Humanities Council. She is based in San Francisco, California and Clarksdale, Mississippi.

EVENT DETAILS & HOW TO REGISTER

This event will take place online on September 17, 2021 at 7pm Eastern. This is NOT an in-person event.

The program is free and open to the public but requires advance registration. Register online by clicking “Get Tickets” below or by calling (717) 392-4633. In the days before the event, we will reach out to registrants via email with a PDF program booklet as well as information on how to connect to that evening’s program.