‘Make Orwell Fiction Again.’ That’s the aim of all-day Modesto reading of ‘1984’
George Orwell’s “1984” will take the stage at Prospect Theater Project on July 18 during an all-day read-a-thon centered on the theme “Make Orwell Fiction Again.”
The event, also hosted by the Stanislaus County Commission for Women, is free and open to all. It will start at 8 a.m. and end when the book reading is finished. The organizers divided the book into 37 sections to be read aloud, estimated at 15 to 20 minutes per section. That means the reading could take more than 12 hours.
While the book reading is the focus, attendees also can make banners with the Stanislaus Visibility Brigade, get a “1984” screen-print from Chris Garcia from Remontant Made, or purchase copies of the book and other literary merchandise from Bookish.
Co-organizer Gillian Wegener, president of the Stanislaus County Commission for Women, said she hopes this event brings awareness to challenges against people’s rights and freedoms.
“Intellectual freedom, the freedom to read, freedom of speech, goes in all directions,” Wegener said. “It’s important for everybody, whether or not they share each other’s ideas and opinions. Everybody deserves those rights.”
“Nineteen Eighty-Four,” originally published in 1949, follows the life of Winston Smith in the totalitarian state of Oceania. Winston’s job involves altering historical documents to strengthen the state’s propaganda. He begins to question and rebel against the regime, though, and has to avoid the surveillance of Big Brother, Oceania’s mysterious leader.
Wegener said, “The whole point of literature is to connect us to ideas and history and keep us alert to what’s going on in our own time period.”
Commission for Women board members had the idea for the read-a-thon and approached Laura Dickinson-Turner, artistic director at Prospect Theater Project. Dickinson-Turner said the themes in “1984” are still relevant decades later.
“This idea that we are being digitized, that our experiences are being commodified, that our lives have more and more of a surveillance state feel,” she said.
An important goal of the event is to foster community, organizers said.
“From what I’m hearing, people are feeling worried, and in that worry, they feel like they’re very alone,” co-organizer Stella Beratlis said. She is the secretary and newsletter editor of the commission. “I think that it’s really important to, you know, push against that isolation because that’s when bad things happen.”
So far, 22 people have signed up to read. At least one person will be reading in Spanish, and another in German. Readers can sign up online or at the event if a section is still available. Readers who sign up in advance will receive a PDF copy of their section to practice.
Dickinson-Turner said the act of reading aloud is significant because it is a shared experience and allows for “not just one interpretation, and inflection, and perception.” She said the event celebrates diversity, love and compassion, which is antithetical to the society in “1984” that was formed through shared fear and hatred.
The event will take place at Prospect Theater Project, 1214 K St. This choice was deliberate, as organizers said they want to offer a safe and comfortable way for people to get involved.
“They maybe don’t want to go protest at the ICE facility in Stockton,” Beratlis said. “Maybe this is a thing that they see themselves doing, and there’s a place for everybody in all of this.”
Dickinson-Turner said the event is free, to let people take action without having to deplete their resources.
Doors open at 7:30 a.m. There will be two intermissions at 12:20 p.m. and 4:40 p.m. While the reading will take place in the theater, the other events will be in the theater’s Artist Lab next door.
“This is, quite literally, giving people a voice,” Wegener said.
