ANN ARBOR—The PBS documentary, “Porgy and Bess: An American Voice,” will have its public premiere in a free screening at 7 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Michigan Theater here. The premiere is sponsored by the University of Michigan Office of the Vice President for Research and the Division of Research Development and Administration. The Michigan Theater is located at 603 East Liberty. The 90-minute documentary created by U-M Prof. James Standifer presents scenes from many of the productions of George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” as well as commentary from African American performers involved in the long history of this controversial masterpiece of musical theater. The documentary is a major achievement in cultural and social history featuring interviews with Maya Angelou, Ann Brown, William Warfield, Willard White, Todd Duncan, Billy Taylor, Diahann Carroll, Kitty Carlisle Hart, and others. The premiere will also feature live performances of several numbers from “Porgy and Bess,” an exhibit of artifacts from the various productions of the opera, remarks by U-M President Lee C. Bollinger, and a question and answer period with Standifer and some of the performers who appear in the documentary. The $1.4 million production was co-produced by Standifer, the U-M School of Music and Vanguard Films. The project received a $906,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an amount second only to the NEH grant for Ken Burns’ documentary on the Civil War. The Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the U-M were among other key contributors. This premiere is a U-M/Martin Luther King Symposium event sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research and the Division of Research Development and Administration. It is also a special event in the “Talking Bridges” series of the “Arts of Citizenship” program, as part of the U-M Year of Humanities and Arts (YoHA). Free tickets for the screening at the Michigan Theater can be obtained by calling (734) 764-1185 or by e-mail at porgyandbess@umich.edu. Tickets “Porgy and Bess: An American Voice” will air on PBS at 10 p.m. Feb. 4. For more information, see http://www.pbs.org. To read the feature article on the documentary in the recent NEH Humanities Magazine, visit http://www.neh.fed.us/html/magazine/porgy.html. To learn more about Prof. James Standifer’s role in the documentary, visit http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/MT97/Fal97/mt12f97.html. To learn more about the Year of the Humanities and Arts (YoHA) at U-M visit http://www.engin.umich.edu/org/YoHA/yoha-web/.

Michigan TheaterProf. James StandiferSchool of MusicYear of Humanities and Artsporgyandbess@umich.eduhttp://www.pbs.orghttp://www.neh.fed.us/html/magazine/porgy.html