Unpacking Longview
written and performed by: Elizabeth M. Melton
Unpacking Longview is a solo performance based on my Ph.D. dissertation research that focuses on public school desegregation in my hometown: Longview, Texas.
​
I began writing Unpacking Longview in the fall of 2015, and eventually compiled an initial 60-minute workshop performance. I presented this workshop version of the play in Swain Hall, a black box performance space, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on November 17-19, 2016. Thanks to a series of off-campus fellowships, I spent the summer and fall of 2017 collecting more interviews, revising my play, and presented a revamped version for Longview audiences on November 11 and 12, 2017. I also performed the piece in conversation with my colleague Sonny Kelly’s play, The Talk, at Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church in February 2019. The script continues to evolve and each version has been specifically re-staged for specific audiences and spaces.
​
​
​
Bring Unpacking Longview to your community!
