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The World Is Round: A Children’s Audio Play

Friday March 29 2024 • 1:13am - 1:13am ET

A page from Ida Pearle's new book 'The Moon is Going to Addy's House' published by Penguin.

Listen to The World Is Round: A Children’s Audio Play

“How can the world be round if a ball doesn’t roll by itself down the street?” little Rosa asks her mother, trying to push off bedtime.

“The world is very, very big,” her mother says. “And because it is so big, it just feels like it’s flat. But it isn’t.”

And so begins their trip around the globe in The World Is Round, a new children’s audio play by Arthur Yorinks that premiered at The Greene Space in November 2015. Performed live on our stage by a stellar cast of actors, the story takes us from Africa to India, from Haiti to Denmark with traditional folklore that illuminates the diversity and commonality of the human spirit.

The performance culminates with a sneak peek from an original opera by Israeli composer Ronnie Reshef with a performance by a chorus of New York City public school students under the direction of award-winning composer Edward Barnes.

Listen to the audio play above or watch video of the performance below.


Featured Stories

  1. Leopard, Goat, and Yam (West Africa)
  2. The Fly (Southeast Asia)
  3. How Mosquitoes Came to Be (North America)
  4. Rumplestiltskin (Western Europe)
  5. The Most Frugal of Men (East Asia)
  6. The Monkey and The Crocodile (South Asia)
  7. John Brodison and the Policeman (Northern Europe)
  8. Bye-Bye (Caribbean)
  9. The Ugly Duckling (Scandinavia)

Company

Actors: Linda Powell, Steve Mellor, Jennifer Van DyckJason Dirden and Brandon Dirden

Chorus: Shakteria Brown, Ivanka Cuenca, Shanique Davidson, Chantal Florez, Naville Garcia, Kristina Glavin, Genery Gomez, Isabel Goncalves, Bruce Jimenez, Jordan Juliano, Sophia Kazee, Harmony Leon, Cementa Maslowski, Madeline Montalvo, Aaisha Nance, Giancarlo Pinzon, Amaya Preza, Dexther Reyez, Nelson Rivera, Jairo Rodriguez, Joshua Rosario, Domenyka Sarauz, Maya Solkoff, Daphne Vargas, Miranda Velez, Pierce Vencer, Jada Vick, and Lakia Wright

Musical Director and Pianist: Edward Barnes

Choral Director: Heidi Best

Art: original pen and ink illustrations by multimedia artist Caroline LaDouce

Author and Director: Arthur Yorinks


About the Author

Arthur Yorinks is the author of more than 35 children’s books, including Caldecott Medal winner Hey, Al, in collaboration with illustrators that include Maurice Sendak, William Steig, Mort Drucker, David Small, and Richard Egielski. He has written and directed over 40 original audio plays performed live at The Kennedy Center, The Henry Street Playhouse, The Jacob Burns Film Center, and The New Victory Theater in New York City as well as other venues across the country. Yorinks’ previous audio works Dubliners: A Quartet (2014), Their Eyes Were Watching God (2012), and The Invisible Man (2009) all premiered at The Greene Space.

Special thanks to Ida Pearle for use of artwork from her new book The Moon is Going to Addy’s House (Penguin). 

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