The Manton Avenue Project (MAP) will stage its next performance: Pedal Power: The Bicycle Play, December 1-4. Performances will take place at 7pm on Thursday and Friday, and 2pm on Saturday and Sunday, in the Blackbox at AS220 at 95 Empire Street in downtown Providence. There will be a talkback following the Sunday performance. The Manton Avenue Project (MAP) is a non-profit organization that unites children living in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood with local theater professionals to create original plays together. The Manton Avenue Project’s mission is to nurture the unique potential of kids living in Olneyville by unleashing their creative voices through playmaking. Each of MAP’s out-of-school time programs is focused on playwriting education, mentorship, and bringing kids’ plays to the stage.

Pedal Power: The Bicycle Play is the culminating performance of The Manton Avenue Project’s TAG TEAM program, an afterschool playwriting course held at MAP’s Clubhouse in Olneyville. Ten 5th grade playwrights will collaborate on a play about bicycling, community building and social history. For this project, The Manton Avenue Project partnered with the Recycle-A-Bike and the Woonasquatucket Rivershed Watershed Council to learn bike safety, took bike tours along the Woony River, and became more confident riders. We also partnered with Sarah Zurier from the RI Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission to learn about the ways bikes have influenced social movements. The resulting production will be directed by MAP’s Executive Artistic Director Meg Sullivan, and star local adult theatre artists Beth Alianiello, Danny Brundage, Jess Halpin, Shawn Fennell, Nicole Maynard, and Jenny Sanchez.

This is the first production of The Manton Avenue Project’s 2016-2017 season, which is supported by a grant from June Rockwell Levy Foundation, The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, The Rhode Island Council on the Humanities, Providence Rotary Charities Foundation, United Way of Rhode Island, as well as many other individual donors.

Tickets are pay-what-you-can at the door and will be available on Eventbrite.

For more information, go to: http://mantonavenueproject.org/