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Community Corner

A Special Night at Pelican Gallery

A reading of Ann P. Meredith's "Special" will be performed this Friday evening to benefit The Pelican Art Foundation.

This Friday will be a special night at when artist, writer and photographer Ann P. Meredith presents a scripted reading of her new work as a benefit for The Pelican Art Foundation.

Inspired by her own experience of childhood sexual abuse, the live scripted reading of "Special" is the same event that won the Fringe of Marin People’s Choice as Best Director, Best Play, Best Actors in 2009.

Sounds a little scary good.

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“I wrote the script to bring up this topic in a safe place," said creator, Ann P. Meredith. "The audience experiences emotions, has reactions. There is a healing and then closure. Nobody is going out on the street with an open wound." 

She promises there are even a few laughs.

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“This is the story of the survivors and how they are healing and how they get through. Some audiences get very involved. There is laughter. But I’ve had people in the audience shout things, too,” she said.

“Special” is a completed script that Meredith is planning to turn into a film.

The story focuses on a group of friends reunited at the debut of a play held the night before a former teacher of theirs is to be honored for a lifetime of teaching. What would happen if this group of former victims turned up at the event? What would happen if they all spoke up on his big night?

An adjunct Professor at NYU's New School of Social Research, Feminist Art Institute and UC Berkeley Extension, Meredith has also been an Emmy’s judge for news & documentaries for several years. Her photography has been exhibited in solo and group shows around the country including two major projects, “The Global Face of AIDS: Photographs of Women and "Tall in The Saddle: Cowgirls, Ranch Women & Rodeo Gals."

Her work is among the collections of The Library of Congress and The Smithsonian Institution.

The reading will benefit the Pelican Art Foundation, started last year by Linda Postenrieder and Donna Hinshaw, who own Pelican Art Gallery & Custom Framing. The goal of the foundation is to fund the arts in Sonoma County and specifically in Petaluma.

“We love having women-run events in the gallery and I would categorize this along the lines of The Vagina Monologues," Postenrider said. "Both cover material that helps curb violence against women and children. There’s nothing graphic. There’s a lot of innuendo and each audience member reaches his or her own conclusions."

The business and life partners will be running the concession stand and selling $25 tickets at the door. They’d really love it if people paid in cash or by check to avoid service bottlenecks.

“We hope people who love the theater will come to this event. This is a community building event on a very important topic,” said Postenrieder.

Meredith, too, underscores the prevalence of sexual abuse in society, recalling that "every two minutes, someone in America will be sexually assaulted" and that one in four girls is assaulted before they turn 18.

"It’s an epidemic,” said Meredith. “Children stay quiet because they are threatened with death and they believe it. You have 80-year-old women suddenly remembering. They can bury it that long. People have to speak up and encourage others to speak up,” she said.

A reading of SPECIAL will be held one night only, Friday, June 10 at the Pelican Art Gallery. It starts at 7:30pm and costs $25.

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