WVIA holds free ‘Mercy Street’ preview screening and panel with Civil War reenactors in Pittston on Jan. 10
From a press release:
WVIA invites the public to a special preview screening of the premiere episode of PBS’ new six-part Civil War hospital drama “Mercy Street” and Civil War panel discussion on Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016 at 3 p.m. at the WVIA Public Media Studios in Pittston.
Seats in the studio (100 WVIA Way, Pittston) are free, but limited. Reserve your seat by calling 570-602-1134 or visiting wvia.org.
The event includes an informative panel discussion that will set the scene with stories of Northeastern Pennsylvanians caught up in the Civil War, including Dr. Isaiah Everhart and Col. Ezra Ripple of Scranton and several nurses from Hazleton. Civil War reenactors in uniform will represent soldiers and medical officers from the 143rd PA Infantry and Second Maryland Infantry. Plus, there will be refreshments and all attendees will see a preview screening of the first episode of “Mercy Street.”
Based on real events, “Mercy Street” takes viewers beyond the battlefield and into the lives of Americans on the Civil War homefront as they face the unprecedented challenges of one of the most turbulent times in our nation’s history.
Set in Virginia in the spring of 1862, “Mercy Street” follows the lives of two volunteer nurses on opposite sides of the conflict: Mary Phinney (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a staunch New England abolitionist, and Emma Green (Hannah James), a naive young Confederate belle. The two collide at Mansion House, the Green family’s luxury hotel that has been taken over and transformed into a Union Army Hospital in Alexandria, a border town between North and South and the longest-occupied Confederate city of the war. Ruled under martial law, Alexandria is now the melting pot of the region, filled with civilians, female volunteers, doctors, soldiers including wounded soldiers from both sides, free blacks, enslaved and contraband (escaped slaves living behind Union lines) African Americans, prostitutes, speculators, and spies.
The broadcast premiere of “Mercy Street” will be at 10 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016 on WVIA-TV.
