Four major universities are collaborating with theatre companies in Boston, Baltimore, Washington and Atlanta to develop new plays, music and dance competitions over the next two years to commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the American Civil War.

The National Civil War Project comprises of:

-        Harvard University with the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass.,

-        The University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center will partner with CENTERSTAGE, Baltimore,

-         George Washington University will join Arena Stage and

-         Emory University will work with Alliance Theatre, Atlanta.

The goal of this project is to create 12 artistic works about or inspired by the American Civil War in each region for the stage and new arts-integrated academic programs for the students.

The collaboration will also produce national conferences, symposia, public lecture series, community programs, student-generated exhibitions and post-show discussions.

The first program in the project will be presented by Harvard University. It will feature, 'The Boston Abolitionists' describing about the abolitionist movement and the trial of a fugitive slave, May.

"This is an anniversary of what is arguably one of the most important times in American history," Arena Stage Artistic Director, Molly Smith, told Newser. "And the same questions behind state rights and civil rights continue to infuse who we are as a country."

Meanwhile, Alliance Theatre and Emory will develop a new theatrical production on Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Native Guard," alongside a workshop in 2014.

It tells the story of a black Civil War troop assigned to guard white Confederate soldiers on an island off Mississippi's Gulf Coast.

CENTERSTAGE, will showcase a musical piece of a Civil War battlefield called, 'At War With Ourselves,' with a 500-voice choir and poetry.

The theatre company is also planning to include a British writer to provide an international perspectives on the war and on the complex relationship between Europe and the U.S. then.

On the other hand, Arena Stage is appointing 25 playwrights to contribute to a play named, 'Our War' regarding the battles, restoration and its consequences.

"Engaging students through art and art-making is one of the ways in which universities prepare young women and men for life in a world that is far better connected and far more complex than at any other point in human history," Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust, a Civil War historian, told the newspaper.