PUTNEY — Sean Christopher Lewis, a resident artist at Sandglass Theater, will perform Just Kids, an autobiographical piece, on Nov. 11 and 12 at 8 p.m.
In Just Kids, Lewis tells of how he was pulled into a sudden rush of discoveries about his own unsettling past while spending lonely weeks in Kansas teaching a group of emotionally troubled kids.
Lewis's long-estranged biological father forces him to endure the strife of their troubled relationship one more time, before leaving the son to pick up the pieces and figure out what it all means.
Lewis's plays have won the Kennedy Center's Rosa Parks Award and the National New Play Network's Smith Prize. Lewis is also a noted actor, working Off Broadway at the Pearl Theatre and the LaMama Experimental Theatre Club, and in television and feature films ranging from Comedy Central's Upright Citizen's Brigade to God's Country.
He has taught in venues ranging from schools for the exceptionally gifted in Eastern Iowa, to prisons in North Philadelphia, to villages in East Africa. His workshops use popular forms (hiphop, movies, basic storytelling) to empower writers to find their own voice.
Lewis will be teaching a variety of workshops in local schools in the coming days. His workshops will range from graduate-level exploration of interviewing techniques at SIT Graduate Institute to a Poetry Slam-based workshop exploring themes of substance abuse and sexuality at the Compass School.
Lewis will also offer a workshop at Sandglass Theater on Thursday, Nov. 11 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. organized by Transition Putney, designed to engage the Putney community in a discussion of the role of art and artists in strengthening community resilience.
Just Kids is the latest performance in Sandglass Theater's Voices of Community series.
Now in its seventh year, the series has used performances and workshops to create a sustained dialogue among nationally acclaimed artists and community members about issues of diversity and identity.