Youngstown State University’s Department of Communication, in collaboration with the Department of Theatre and Dance, will stage “From the River of Ghosts,” written and performed by Youngstown native Roger Gregg, 7 p.m., Friday, March 20 and 2 p.m., Saturday, March 21 in Bliss Hall’s Spotlight Theater.

Tickets are free, but must be reserved by calling 330-941-3105.

“ ‘From the River of Ghosts’ is a love letter I was compelled to write,” said Gregg, an award-winning playwright. “After my sister and I went through a box full of my grandmother’s letters written well over 60 years ago, I felt called to acknowledge the huge debt owed to those who shaped me and set me on my way.”

In this intimate portrait spanning several generations, Gregg blends storytelling, poetry, music and song to create a haunting journey through the Mahoning Valley. He narrates these intimate accounts of tragedy and triumph as he performs before a backdrop of slides of old photographs and home movies.

Gregg accompanies himself with an evolving Americana soundscape consisting of his original live and recorded music. In a free-verse script, he draws upon old family letters, newspaper accounts, history books and childhood memories. Over the course of an hour, he traces his family’s arrival in America in the 1860s, through the region’s great steel boom, the violence of the Steel Valley Klan riots of 1923, his grandfather’s canoeing of the Mahoning river down to Beaver, Ohio and on to the Mississippi. The evening ends with his own ordeal at St. Dominic elementary school and his first attempt at theater making.

Now in his sixties, Gregg has been living in Ireland for over 40 years where he works as a playwright, composer and actor. After spending the 1960s in Youngstown, Gregg went on graduate from the University of Detroit in 1980 and moved to Ireland for additional studies. He also holds an honor master of arts in theater studies from Ireland’s Maynooth University.

He has been a theater professional in Dublin since 1983. His plays have been produced in Ireland, Germany, Australia, Canada and the United States. A voice actor, Gregg has played many roles in various animation and BBC radio series, including Eddie the Computer in the “Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy” sequels on BBC Radio 4. He is currently Glarg in the cartoon series “Space Chickens in Space,” which is broadcast on Disney XD.  In the past year, “For the River of Ghosts” has been produced in Ireland on both the stage and on radio by RTE, the National Broadcasting Company of Ireland. It will return to the stage in Ireland this November.

“It’s a dream come true to be able to bring this show home and perform it where all the stories take place. It created quite a stir in Ireland, so it will be fantastic to see how it’s received on home ground,” he said.

Parking is available in the M30 Wick Avenue parking deck for a small fee. More information is available by calling the Office of Community Engagement and Events at 330-941-2307.

Bliss Hall

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