[act-ma] Maine's Democratic Socialist performs JIMMY HIGGINS: A new play about a labor and political activist

[Roger Leisner]

JIMMY HIGGINS: A new play about a labor and political activist

Harlan Baker will appear as Jimmy Higgins in a one man show he has written, "Jimmy Higgins: A Life in the Labor Movement," will be presented December 5th and 6th at 7:30 PM at the Zero Station 222 Andeson Street in East Bayside in Portland.

Set on the eve of the 1960 presidential race, Jimmy Higgins is being interviewed by a college student about his life. Higgins recounts his days as a newspaper boy in Sandusky Ohio during the first World War, his meeting with Eugene Debs and other radicals opposed to American participation in the war, his experiences in the LaFollette campaign for president in 1924 and his experiences a labor reporter covering the union
organizing drives of tenant farmers and auto workers in the 1930s.

The play premeiered in Portland at the St. Lawrnece Arts and Community center last spring. It has since been performed in Portland and Boston.

Baker is an adjunct lecturer for the Theater department for the University of Southern Maine where he has been teaching for the past 22 years. He is a former member of the Maine legislature, where he served on the Joint Standing committee on Labor.  Baker is the only member of Democratic Socialists of America to serve in the Maine Legislature.

Baker is currently vice president of the Part Time Faculty Association at the university, local 4593 of The American Federation of Teachers AFL-CIO. As an actor he has performed with numerous professional theater companies throughout New England.

"Jimmy Higgins" has long stood for the name of the rank-and-file union and socialist activist.

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door or by calling 347-7000.

For more information go to www.harlanbaker.com