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Contact: University Communications & Marketing
Phone (678) 839-6464, FAX (678) 839-6645
ucm@westga.edu
Townsend center presents Sadako and a Thousand Cranes
March 10, 2003
CARROLLTON, GA - GMT Productions will perform Sadako and a Thousand Cranes at the University of West Georgia’s Townsend Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, March 27, at 7:30 p.m.
Based on the book by Kathryn Schultz Miller, Sadako and a Thousand Cranes is the true story of 12-year old Sadako Sasaki, the surviving infant victim of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Ten years after the bombing of her city, Hiroshima, Japan, Sadako is preparing to run and win a girls’ race when she learns that she has “radiation sickness.”
Sadako will be presented by the professional theatrical touring company GMT Productions, which presented Trail of Tears at West Georgia last March.
Considered
one of the 10 best American plays for young audiences, the musical depicts
the true optimism of 12-year old Sasaki who believes an old Japanese tale
that if a sick person folds a thousand origami paper cranes, her wish
to get well will be granted.
After she completes 640 of the origami cranes, she is visited by her dear grandmother who lovingly carries her on the back of a crane to the Land of a Thousand Spirits. There, she joins her ancestors and learns that her wish may yet be granted. “It is better,” says her grandmother, “for others to finish the cranes.”
Her friends inspire her classmates to finish the thousand paper cranes, and today, children from Japan and all over the world fold a thousand cranes and lay them at the feet of her statue in Hiroshima Peace Park. The engraving on the monument states their collective wish: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world.”
Miller’s true story about the effects of war on the life of a young girl is a multicultural experience that has enriched family audiences throughout America. Surrounded by the sound of thundering Taiko drums, the audience is swept into the essence of Japanese culture and mysticism as the music introduces the Valley of the Spirits in the opening scene.
Winner of several awards including the National Endowment for the Arts Playwright Award, this touching musical is the true story of one girl’s courage and triumph.
GMT Productions tours throughout 15 states with performances of classical and musical theatre and character-building plays for young audiences. Based in Rome, the company serves more than 200 art councils in the Southeast and reaches well over a half million audience members annually.
With classically trained singers and actors from Italy’s Enza Ferrari team, who also coached Maria Callas and Pavarotti, as well as a few who trained at New York’s prestigious American Musical and Dramatic Academy, theater in such exotic form is a rare treat for Carroll County.
Tickets for Sadako and a Thousand Cranes are $7 for adults, $5 for seniors, $3 for children and free for UWG students. For reservation information, visit www.townsendcenter.org, or call the Townsend Center Box Office at 770-836-6694.
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