CULTURE PROJECT Celebrates 15th Anniversary

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."

MoLoRa, originally presented at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, marks South African playwright and director Farber's first New York production since her acclaimed staging of Amajuba: Like Doves We Rise which was a smash hit at Culture Project in 2005. Like Amajuba, MoLoRa fuses a timely narrative with a specific musical world to create an event of extraordinary theatricality.

Culture Project is New York's premier destination for artistic work that investigates urgent social and political issues. By fostering innovative collaboration between human rights organizations and theatre, music and film artists, Culture Project aims to inspire and impact public dialogue and policy, encouraging democratic participation in the most urgent matters of our time. Founded in 1996 by Artistic Director Allan Buchman, Culture Project has premiered celebrated shows including The Exonerated, Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel, Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, Lawrence Wright's My Trip To Al-Qaeda, Tings Dey Happen, the Lucille Lortel Award-winning world premiere of George Packer's Betrayed and Temple University's acclaimed production of In Conflict. Culture Project produced Breaking the Silence, Beating the Drum, a groundbreaking concert at the United Nations to commemorate the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Most recently, Culture Project produced Twin Spirits with Sting and Trudie Styler at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and the month-long Women Center Stage Festival at The Living Theatre.

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