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Play Marking 50 Years Since Alabama Church Bomb Streamed to Staten Island

By Nicholas Rizzi | September 9, 2013 8:22am
 Councilwoman Debi Rose and the Harbor Lights Theater program will host a free streaming of a staged reading of "Four Little Girls: Birmingham 1963" at Wagner College.
Councilwoman Debi Rose and the Harbor Lights Theater program will host a free streaming of a staged reading of "Four Little Girls: Birmingham 1963" at Wagner College.
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DNAinfo/Nicholas Rizzi

GRYMES HILL — A Washington D.C. performance of a play about the four young girls who were killed in an Alabama church bombing 50 years ago will be live streamed to Staten Island to mark the event's 50th anniversary.

Councilwoman Debi Rose and Harbor Lights Theater Company will host a free showing of the play.

The simulcast, in a lecture hall in Wagner College, will show the live staged reading of "Four Little Girls: Birmingham 1963" at the Kennedy Center Family Theater in D.C. on Sept. 15 to mark the anniversary, Rose's office said.

While the performance will be streamed online on the Kennedy Center's website, Rose worked with the producers to simulcast the reading for Staten Islanders, who may not have a computer or who want to watch it in a large group.

“Their stories as individuals are not well known,” Rose said in a statement. “This dramatic presentation fleshes out the story of these innocent victims who never knew the joy of young womanhood.”

The play, written by Christina Ham, tells the stories of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, who were killed in 1963 when Ku Klux Klan sympathizers planted a bomb at the 13th Street Baptist Church the girls attended.

Aside from the bombing, the play also fleshes out the girls — who were bestowed a Congressional Gold Medal by President Barack Obama this year — and their hopes, dreams and ambitions, Rose said.

The D.C. performance will be directed by actress Phylicia Rashad, who played Clare Huxtable on the Cosby Show and won a Tony for her performance in “A Raisin in the Sun.”

The free streaming of “Four Little Girl: Birmingham 1963” will be on Sept. 15 at 5:45 p.m. in Spiro Hall 2 at Wagner College. For more information, contact Rose’s office at 718-556-7370.