For Audiences and Educators: Radio Plays Explore Families Hungering for Change – Performances in April

ALBANY — The UAlbany Performing Arts Center presents Dan Froot & Company in Pang! for three public performances taking place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday, April 20-22, on the uptown University at Albany campus located at 1400 Washington Ave. 

Pang! is an original work adventurously staged as a triptych of live radio plays based on the oral histories of real working-class American families hungering for change. It explores social challenges ranging from food insecurity to gun violence to foreclosure to anti-immigrant bias. Pang! aims to raise awareness, decrease stigma and promote cross-class dialogue around circumstances faced by families living below the poverty line.

Performed as if recording a live radio broadcast or podcast, the actors at microphones voice dozens of characters from 18-months to 77-years old; from a Burundian refugee speaking in his home language to a 7-year-old Miami boy whose dialogue is spoken in unison by the entire ensemble. Pang!’s performers include Natalie Camunas, Krista Gonzalez, Christopher Rivas and Froot.

Over the course of eight months in 2015-16, the company created six book-length oral histories of families living with food insecurity in Cedar Rapids, Los Angeles and Miami. They then collaborated with one of the families from each city to devise the three 30-minute plays that comprise Pang! The families consulted with the company continuously throughout the adaptation, rehearsal and performance processes. 

Advance tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for students, seniors and UAlbany faculty-staff. Tickets purchased on the day of the show (pending availability) are $20 for the general public and $15 for students, seniors and UAlbany faculty-staff. All tickets must be purchased on-line from the UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s web site at www.albany.edu/pac. Information and assistance can be obtained by contacting the UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s main office at 518-442-3995 or PAC@albany.edu.

In addition to the public performance, Pang! will also be performed for area high school students on Thursday and Friday, April 20 & 21 at 10 a.m. Admission is free, but reservations are required. Limited seating is available. Educators wishing to bring groups can contact the UAlbany Performing Arts Center office at 518-442-3995 or PAC@albany.edu. Home school students and parents are also welcome.