Combining puppets and actors, "Steal Away" is part of New Perspective’s World Voices program, which offers fables and folktales from different cultures for young audiences and their families. After the play, children get to meet Harriet, learn two spirituals that were actually used as coded messages for slaves escaping to freedom, and sing along with Harriet. The performance concludes with an introduction to the puppets, puppeteers, and actors, who join the audience and interact directly with the kids. Award-winning writer Rick Balian tells the story of one of America’s greatest heroines—from her youth as a slave to her service on the Underground Railroad and her continuing efforts to help others in need throughout her lifetime. Balian’s research for the play included interviews with Harriet’s descendents and the curator of the Harriet Tubman home. Steal Away has been performed for thousands of New York City children as well as for school and family audiences in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Performances have been brought directly to schools and other notable locations, such as The National Black Theatre, The Theatre at Riverside Church, and a very special performance in a Quaker meetinghouse at Friends Seminary, which had been an actual stop on the Underground Railroad. NPTC received a special citation in 2010 from then NYS Governor Paterson, honoring the play and its impact on children and families. NEW PERSPECTIVES THEATRE COMPANY is an award-winning, multi-racial company performing in the communities throughout New York City and the Tri-State area. The Company’s mission is to develop and produce new plays and playwrights, especially women and people of color, to present classic plays in a style that addresses contemporary issues, and to extend the benefits of theatre to young people and communities in need. Our aim is not to exclude, but to cast a wider net. RICK BALIAN is an award-winning playwright whose plays for adults, young adults, and children are performed all over the country. He has written five plays for the renowned youth theater Merry-Go-Round Playhouse. One of those plays, an interactive piece that takes kids through a year in the life of the ancient Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), has toured the northeast for 10 years. He has had a long and fruitful relationship with New Perspectives Theatre Company, helping to establish their World Voices program and writing five plays for it, including Steal Away. Rick grew up in Auburn, New York, Harriet’s adopted hometown in the north, and has met many of Harriet’s relatives. Their spirit and pride in their heritage influenced the writing of the play. His play The Brannock Device, a satire about an American air strike on Libya (!), is published by Samuel French and won the 12th Annual Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival. Balian was the recipient of a residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts and was an Artist-in-Residence at Elmira College.
