[act-ma] 5/22 Salem MA - Jimmy Higgins: A Life in the Labor Movement

[David O. Knuttunen]

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

For those who missed his Boston DSA benefit performance in October of 2008
(or who just can't get enough), Harlan Baker will again appear as Jimmy
Higgins his one man play, "".  

The play is directed by Christopher Price and will be presented at the
Griffen Theater  on 7 Lynde Street in Salem, Massachusetts Saturday May 22nd
at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday May 23rd at 4 p.m.

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.

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.

He is currently vice president of the Part Time Faculty Association at the
University of Maine, 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.

Since its premier at the St. Lawrence Arts Center in Portland the play has
toured all over New England winning praises from audiences young and old.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the box office or by calling the
theatre at 978-825-0222.

For more information go to www.harlanbaker.com