The Unreconciled Project presents a special performance of the award-winning play UNRECONCILED

Galvanizing audiences nationally and internationally, UNRECONCILED is a solo tour de force of daring to stand up to an institution that wants nothing more than silence. Thirteen-year-old Jay Sefton dreamed of being an actor and was cast as Jesus in a school play directed by the parish priest — later defrocked and named in a grand jury report for sexual abuse of minors. Told with unflinching honesty and surprising humor, Sefton exposes the wider system that denies justice to survivors, taking audiences on a magic carpet ride through love and bewilderment in a whiskey-drenched, sports-crazed suburb of 1980s Philadelphia, where daily life is punctuated by church bells. The show will be followed by a discussion on healing trauma through theatre with Bessel van der Kolk (bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score and foremost expert on trauma) and Licia Sky, (co-founder of the Trauma Research Foundation). Hailed by critics and audiences, UNRECONCILED is the winner of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association Award for Best New Play and Best Solo Performance, and Sefton has received numerous honors, including the Sean P. McIlmail Hero Award from CHILD USA. Mass Live called UNRECONCILED’s debut “The play to gain Chester Theatre and Sefton well-deserved national attention, whether it goes to Broadway, other regional theaters or to film. It’s just that good.” UNRECONCILED sparks powerful conversations among audiences, survivors, and advocates. In conjunction with the July 25 performance at the Academy of Music and post-show discussion with Bessel van der Kolk and Licia Sky, the Unreconciled Project will offer a creative writing workshop and peer support group for survivors and their loved ones on July 26. A feature-length documentary film of the UNRECONCILED journey is in production. The July 25 event will be part of the documentary.