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Arts & Culture

MANMADE EARTH returns to where it started

Maria Baranova

It may defy description, but MANMADE EARTH is connecting with audiences. Created by New York City-based 600 Highwaymen, the production debuted in Buffalo a year ago as part of a larger festival hosted by Torn Space Theater. With eight young actors from Buffalo in tow, MANMADE EARTH has been on the move, including performances in front of sold-out audiences at Brooklyn's Invisible Dog Art Center. This weekend the show will conclude its local two-week run at 612 Fillmore Avenue.

"I know it sounds a little silly, but the show is really about people in a room, together, and how we deal with the basic fact that, we're together here, we're in this space, we're going to have to care for each other," said 600 Highwaymen's Michael Silverstone who co-created MANMADE EARTH with Abigail Browde.

"I think that the performance asks a lot of the audience. But I think the audience goes there and experiences deep feelings," Silverstone said.

"We have young people in the show and I think that does something to audience members. It makes us feel certain things."

Many of the young actors are students at Lafayette High School. The students are from Congo, Egypt, Malaysia, Somalia, Syria, Tanzania and the United States.

Monday - Friday, 6 a.m. - 10 a.m.

Jay joined Buffalo Toronto Public Media in 2008 and has been the local host for NPR's "Morning Edition" ever since. In June 2022, he was named one of the co-hosts of BTPM's "What's Next."

A graduate of St. Mary's of the Lake School, St. Francis High School, and Buffalo State College, Jay has worked most of his professional career in Buffalo. Outside of public media, he continues in longstanding roles as the public address announcer for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League and as play-by-play voice of Canisius College basketball.
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