"The Regina Taylor Project: A Seat at the Table"

Event time: 7:30 p.m. March 3-4 and March 9-11, with a 3 p.m. performance planned March 5.

The premiere of a new play by Golden Globe-winning actress Regina Taylor is scheduled for March 3 at Carthage College, 2001 Alford Park Drive.

Carthage Theatre will stage six performances of “The Regina Taylor Project: A Seat at the Table”, the latest installment in its New Play Initiative. The play focuses on the life of voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, from her beginnings in abject poverty to her testimony before the Democratic National Convention.

Martin McClendon, chair of Carthage’s Theatre Department, directs the play. Professor Dimitri Shapovalov provides music direction, employing iconic songs from the struggle for civil rights.

Each year, Carthage commissions an acclaimed playwright to write an original play and work with students to produce it. Taylor has segued between television and film, earning a best actress Golden Globe and a pair of Emmy nominations in the 1990s for her role as Lilly Harper in the TV drama “I’ll Fly Away”.

On stage, she was the first African-American woman to play Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet” on Broadway. Taylor is an artistic associate with the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the resident playwright for the Signature Company in New York. She earned the Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award in 2010, and her musical “Crowns” earned four Helen Hayes awards.

Show times are 7:30 p.m. March 3-4 and March 9-11, with a 3 p.m. performance planned March 5. All performances are held in the Wartburg Theatre, located inside the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Natural and Social Sciences at the north end of the Carthage campus.

Tickets cost $14, $10 for seniors 55 and older, and $8 for students. Seating is limited; to purchase tickets, visit www.carthage.edu/tickets or call the Carthage Fine Arts box office at 262-551-6661 between noon and 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

Price: Tickets cost $14, $10 for seniors 55 and older, and $8 for students. Seating is limited; to purchase tickets, visit www.carthage.edu/tickets or call the Carthage Fine Arts box office at 262-551-6661 between noon and 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.