NYC Gets a Day of REVOLUTIONARY PLAYS SINCE 2000

In conjunction with the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (Frank Hentschker, Executive Director) announces a day dedicated to the emerging global voices of revolution from Egypt, Georgia, and the United States. 

This full day of theatrical readings and critical discussions will examine the links between uprisings in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and movements like Occupy Wall Street, looking for similarities between these grassroots expressions of frustration, fury, and optimism. How does theater react to these crucial historical moments? With documentary exactness? With lyrical outrage?

The day is arranged as follows:

2:00 p.m.: Reading of Iced Tea by Lasha Bugadze (Georgia). The winner of the BBC International Radio Playwriting Award turns a satiric eye on the excesses of a state increasingly preoccupied with force-based solutions.

4:00 p.m.: Reading of A Diary in Scenes (and remember to never wear tampons at a revolution) by Laila Soliman (Egypt).  One of the first and most respected young writers to record and dramatize the events of Tahrir Square takes a documentary snapshot of world-shaking events. 

6:30 p.m.:  The evening program will feature introductory material from The Civilians (who bring their investigative theatre toolbox to the Occupy movement), followed by a talk with Laila Soliman, Bugadze, Iranian novelist Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, and Civilians composer Michael Friedman on the kinships between the Occupy Wall Street movement, worldwide protests, and the possibilities for a new type of political theatre. The evening will be chaired and moderated by Mike Daisey, playwright-performer and activist (The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs).

The event REVOLUTIONARY PLAYS SINCE 2000 takes place on Tuesday, May 1, 2012, at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue/34^th St., New York, NY 10016. (Closest subway: 34^th Street/Herald Square.) The day’s events will be free and open to the public. More information can be found on the Segal Center website (http://web.gc.cuny.edu/mestc/) and the PEN World Voices website (www.pen.org/festival) or by calling 212-817-1860.

This event is part of the Eighth Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature (April 30-May 6, 2012) bringing to New York one hundred writers from twenty-five countries to celebrate the power of the written word in action. The festival features performances, discussions, one-on-one conversations, and readings at venues crisscrossing the city, from Harlem to Wall Street. www.pen.org/festival

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