Shining a light on an era
In 1854, a young man slipped out of Virginia on a ship to Boston, leaving slavery behind. But his freedom was short-lived. Several months after Anthony Burns arrived, his owner, citing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 as legal justification, seized him. Burns’ arrest enraged local abolitionists, fueled a deadly riot, and spurred a burgeoning anti-slavery movement. A new production at the A.R.T. developed by director Steven Bogart and members of the A.R.T. Institute, the theater’s graduate training program, shines light on the plight of Burns and the Boston abolitionists who tried to free him. “It was a moment in Massachusetts history where the entire area — Boston, Cambridge, all the way from Worcester to Newburyport — rallied to try to save this man from going back into slavery,” said Bogart, who directs “The Boston Abolitionists Project.” The collaborative work is part of the National Civil War Project, a multiyear collaboration among...