Starting June 9, join us after the show to discover additional perspectives
from community activists and thinkers on the frontlines of racial and social
perceptions. Find out out how these individuals have responded to Disposable
Men and participate in a dialogue with them and with the show's creator,
James Scruggs.
Talkbacks are free with admission to the show.
Kathie Cheng is an activist/organizer
for the New York Local Coordinating Committee of the October 22nd Coalition
to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the
Criminalization of a Generation and for the Stolen Lives Project. She has also
been involved with Asians for Mumia/Jericho, the February 20 National Day of
Solidarity with Muslim, Arab, and South Asian Immigrants, and the Committee
for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti. Professionally, she teaches in local
universities.
Juanita Young is nationally known among families and parents who have lost
their loved ones at the hands of law enforcement as a source of strengh and
support. She lost her son Malcolm Ferguson in March 2000 at the hands of a
plainsclothes NYPD officer and has been a relentless fighter against police
brutality and for social justice since. She is currently fighting charges of "criminal
trespass" brought about by an illegal eviction brought about by the NYPD
in cahoots with her former landlord.
Interviewed by Niegel Smith, Assistant Director, Disposable Men
Niegel Smith is currently the Van Lier Directing Fellow at Second Stage Theater
in Manhattan and has worked in artistic positions at The Public Theater,
Trinity Rep, The Providence Black Repertory Company, The Cleveland Playhouse,
and The Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, London, and has assisted the set designer
Eugene Lee in his Providence studio. New York credits, Directing: Parade,
The Parade Rock Band!, P.S. 122, Where Things Are, Manhattan Theater Source
and The Producer's Club, Rapsody, Workshop, The Red Shoes, Workshop,
And/Or, New Work Now! Series at The Public Theater. Niegel is currently artistic
producing, Rapsody, an orchestral exploration of the history of hip hop and
writing a new southern folk/gospel adaptation of The Red Shoes.
Diallo Shabazz is the Northeast Region Youth Field Director for NAACP, a civil rights organization for ethnic minorities in the United States. The mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.
Interviewed by Carl Skutsch, a professor of history at the School of Visual
Arts
in Manhattan. He has edited and contributed to encyclopedias on social history
including a co-authorship of the Encyclopedia of Human Rights (M.E. Sharpe,
2001). He has worked extensively in theater as both a production stage manager
and writer (his play "Sexual Advisory" appeared in HERE's "USA:
Sex Series".) He is also an occasional photographer. His photos and articles
have appeared in the New York Times and Time Out New York.
Bob Vorlicky is Associate Professor of Drama and
Director of Theatre Studies in the Department of Drama, Tisch School of the
Arts, New York University. He is also an Affiliate Faculty member in the
Department of English and in
the Program in Gender and Sexuality. Bob is the author of several books
and numerous scholarly articles, and he speaks on U.S. drama and performance,
gender theory, and solo performance throughout the United States and abroad.
Currently he is dramaturg for a new musical, Con-Man, based upon Melville's
last novel, The Confidence Man.
Interviewed by Kristin Marting, director, Disposable Men
Over the last seventeen years, Kristin Marting has constructed twenty works
for the stage, including eight original dance theatre pieces, eight new adaptations
of novels and short stories, and four classic plays. For the last twelve
years, she has been developing a unique hybrid directorial/ choreographic
form, which features a "gestural vocabulary" used both as an
emotional signifier and as a choreographic element. This vocabulary, though
specific to each project, is in a state of constant development with an ever-growing
set of permanent gestures being added to the repertoire. Her work has been
supported by (among others) the National Endowment for the Arts, New York
State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs,
the Jerome Foundation, the Peg Santvoord Foundation, and the Rockefeller
MAP Fund. She co-founded and served as co-artistic director of Tiny Mythic
Theatre Company for nine years. She is also a co-founder and current Executive
Director of HERE Arts Center.
Professor Browne-Marshall is a former civil rights litigator. She has published articles on racial justice, civil rights and international human rights law. Professor Browne-Marshall has presented interventions on racial disparity in criminal justice before the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. She is the Founder/Executive Director of The Law and Policy Group, Inc., a non-profit organization that bridges the gap between laws, policies and the people governed by them with a special focus on children, women and people of color. She is also a nationally produced playwright.
Interviewer TBA.
If you can't make it to one of the talkbacks, or you wish to continue a conversation from the show, join the forums at www.disposablemen.org, and share your own experiences.
Disposable Men is a co-production of HERE
Arts Center and GSRT's Digital
Performance Institute.
HERE Arts Center is located at 145
Sixth Avenue (one
block below Spring Street).
Disposable Men plays Thursday - Sunday
@ 8:30 PM,
with additional performances on Sunday @ 5:00 PM, and Monday @
8:30 PM.
All tickets are $20.00. For tickets, call SmartTix at (212) 868-4444
or visit www.here.org. Tickets can be purchased at the HERE Box Office from
4:00 PM until curtain.