This week, New York's premiere home for socially-conscious theatre, Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Artistic Director), celebrates its fifteenth year of presenting groundbreaking, engaging and essential theatre. Since its formation in 1996, Culture Project has made a unique and vital impact on New York's theatrical landscape by following its stated mission to "bear witness to injustice, to stimulate challenging conversation about the most profound and urgent matters of our time and to convert interest, energy and engagement into a motivational demand for progressive change." Its many celebrated productions have included The Exonerated, Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel, Guantanamo, many works through the 2006 IMPACT festival, Lawrence Wright's My Trip To Al-Qaeda and currently Yael Farber's New York premiere of MoLoRa.
"To paraphrase John Houseman, think of the ten best plays you have ever seen and then see if you can remember the venues in which they occurred. Yet, so much of our arts funding is spent on real estate, venues, and institutional support enjoyed largely by a narrow segment of the population, while the sacred and transformative work of struggling artists and smaller arts organizations goes under supported and, often, unrecognized," Artistic Director Allan Buchman said. "Less recognized artists and arts organizations are the manufacturing plants of a national cultural product of which we once took great pride. It's time to think about comprehensive socially responsible and economically accountable arts funding strategies. Perhaps we can be collectively thinking about how the talented and gifted art makers among us can be welcomed to partake in their portion of the American Dream as opposed to the myth of Sisyphus. I look forward to the next fifteen years of seeking out these talents and producing their work."Videos