RWC Professor's One-Act Play on Sex Slavery to Get Reading at Aronoff Center

Let's face it – most of us would rather not think about, much less discuss, the topic of sex slavery. It's just too morbid of a subject and one that we aren't certain we can help prevent, so we prefer to avoid thinking about it altogether. But not Rhonda Pettit.

This Erlanger resident and associate professor of English for Raymond Walters College in Blue Ash learned of the plight of sex slaves and just couldn’t turn her back on them. She was so moved that she penned a collection of poems and, last summer, converted the manuscript to a one-act play.

Thanks to the Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative’s New Voices series, there will be a staged reading of the play on Tuesday, February 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, Fifth Third Bank Theater, corner of Main and Seventh Streets, downtown Cincinnati.

Tickets are only $7 for adults or $4 for students (due to the nature of the play, it is recommended for high schoolers and older ages). Reservations may be made in advance at Aronoff Center Box Office, or by calling 513-621-2787, or online at http://www.cincinnatiarts.org/event_detail.jsp?event_id=876

A staged reading is not a purely dramatic performance, but is intended to present a work-in-progress and allow the playwright to see/hear the work and revise as needed. There will be a question/answer session between the audience and authors following the readings.

Directed by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo, "The Global Lovers" focuses on a woman in Kentucky reads newspaper advertisements and considers the objects she might purchase. Meanwhile, in another part of the world, a young girl is forced into sex slavery. What must they learn about themselves -- and each other?

The staged reading is part of a double bill, in combination with Cincinnatian’s Paul Eisenman’s "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Enlightenment"

For more information, please contact Pettit via email at pettitrs@ucrwcu.rwc.uc.edu or call (859) 727-0115. Or contact Kalman Kivovich at the CPI at (513) 861-0004 or kivi1@aol.com