The UB Poetics Program will present Poets Theater, rarely performed plays by poets from the UB Poetry Collection and beyond, this semester at the new Burchfield Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo.

The lineup includes a performance of “The Origins of Old Son” by Robert Duncan at 7 p.m. March 5. Introduction by Dr. James Maynard, Visiting Assistant Curator of the Poetry Collection.

“The Origins of Old Son” is an important, unpublished work by Duncan, one of the few existing copies of which is housed in the UB Poetry Collection. The play, a comic parody of figures at Black Mountain College infused with Duncan’s characteristic wit, has not been produced since its premiere at Black Mountain in the mid-1950s.

Also being staged that night will be a number of other short plays, including rarely seen one-acts by the late poet Barbara Guest, a dramatic interpretation of excerpts from “Clairvoyant Journal” by Hannah Weiner and an original work by A. J. Patrick Liszkiewicz—“Alphabet Man”— fusing music, theater and animation.

Poets Theater will continue at 7 p.m. April 2 with a full-length staging of “Celebrity Hospital” by San Francisco-based poet and playwright Kevin Killian.

While there is no charge for admission to the Poets Theater, a fee of $7 for adults and $4 for students and seniors is charged to enter the Burchfield Penney museum. Museum members are free.

Poets Theater is supported by the Burchfield Penney Art Center and the David Gray Chair of Poetry and Letters, the McNulty Chair, the Poetry Collection and the Graduate Poetics Group, all at UB.

Tags: Robert Duncan