HartBeat Ensemble will be performing a staged reading of Project: Turnpike. The show, which will include graphic language, intends to portray events that happen daily.
The local, professional theater company writes, “Based on the 2007 landmark federal trial of United States vs. Dennis Paris, which took place here in Hartford, Project: Turnpike presents 72 hours in the life of four exploited sex workers in a motel room on the Berlin Turnpike. In addition to personal interviews with people affected by the industry, HartBeat is working with Raymond Bechard, author of The Berlin Turnpike, in order to create this new play.
Bechard explains, ‘With a long and sordid history, the Berlin Turnpike serves as a metaphor for the landscape in which human trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, and all forms of prostitution have existed in the US for centuries while continuing to flourish today.'”
The performance on April 25th will be the first of two staged readings. As of early March, HartBeat Ensemble has 80% of its readers cast for the show, which will be free for Capital Community College students, but $5 for everyone else.
