Open Auditions for Children Ages 8 - 14

"We the People" Project sponsored by Seneca Falls Library Grant

Auditions for "A New Land ... A New Life" are scheduled for 6:30-8:00 p.m., Jan. 15, in the Seneca Falls Library.

Children ages 8–14 should come prepared to sing a song and dressed to dance. Bring music if appropriate on tape, CD or sheet. The children will be auditioned, on a first come, first served basis, for three leads and a chorus. Call 568-8265 x4 for more information.

Talent from around the Finger Lakes Region is shaping this family play sponsored by the Seneca Falls Library through a "We the People" award from the Council on the Humanities in collaboration with the American Library Association.

Playwright Jay D. Hanagan of Geneva is writing the script. Director/choreographer Pam Bryan of Waterloo is directing the play and musician Debra Lynne Mathews of Sodus has written music for the production.

Recounting the nation's immigration story, Hanagan's play will be performed by children Feb. 24 at the Seneca Falls Library. The performance will be free and open to the public.

The play reflects "Becoming American," the 2006 theme of the Council on the Humanities "We the People" program, which supports projects which strengthen understanding of American history and culture.

As part of the award, the Seneca Falls Library received a set of 15 classic books for readers in kindergarten through twelfth grade from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Jacqueline Grey, development director of the library, said, "This project invites children and families to study from many perspectives what 'becoming American' means to them."

As part of the award, the Seneca Falls Library received a set of 15 classic books for readers in kindergarten through twelfth grade from the National Endowment for the Humanities, based in Washington, D.C.

The public is invited to borrow titles from the "Becoming American" bookshelf at the Seneca Falls Library. The collection includes:

• Grades K-3: The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland, Watch the Stars Come Out by Riki Levinson (also in a Spanish edition), and Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say.
• Grades 4-6: Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman, The People Could Fly: The Picture Book by Virginia Hamilton, Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving (also in a Spanish edition), and In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord.
• Grades 7-8: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith, The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, and Dragonwings by Laurence Yep.
• Grades 9-12: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (also in a Spanish edition), Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin edited by Louis P. Masur, Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza, and Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie by Ole Edvart Rölvaag.