From Mercer Union:
“This newly commissioned work takes as its starting point a 1956 CBC teledrama ON TRIAL The Long Doorway by Canadian screenwriter Stanley Mann. The teledrama tells the story of a rising Black legal aide lawyer who is assigned to represent a young white student who has assaulted a fellow student/rising Black athlete playing out in locations across Toronto such as the Don Jail, the Court House and Roncesvalles. ON TRIAL The Long Doorway re-inserts this forgotten teledrama into the present day. The galleries of Mercer Union are transformed into a series of sets (a jail cell, a legal aid office, a living room, a locker room and court house) for live rehearsals and recordings to take place every Saturday for its duration. These rehearsals take place amongst archival documents from the era, from Canadian documentaries exploring race relations and University of Toronto’s The Varsity, to Life magazine’s coverage of the Emmett Till murder trial.”
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ON TRIAL The Long Doorway is commissioned and produced through a partnership between Mercer Union, a Centre for Contemporary Art and the Contemporary Art Gallery.
Created with the financial support of Partners in Art (PIA) and the Ontario Arts Council (OAC).
Special thanks to Joan Mann, Georgina Jackson, Kimberly Phillips, Allison Collins, and Western Front.
Installation documentation of ON TRIAL The Long Doorway, November 4, 2017, Mercer Union, a Centre for Contemporary Art, Toronto, ON. Curated by Georgina Jackson.
Installation detail: ON TRIAL The Long Doorway. 4-channel Video Installation, Approx. 3 Hrs, Colour, HD. (2019). Part of A Harlem Nocturne. The Contemporary Art Gallery. Vancouver BC.