BEYOND SACRED Plays LPAC, Now thru 5/9

LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (LPAC), an emerging destination for diverse international work, is pleased to present the world premiere of Beyond Sacred (tonight, April 29-May 9) by Ping Chong + Company. Beyond Sacred is an interview-based theatre production that explores the diverse experiences of young Muslim New Yorkers. The production is the centerpiece of LPAC's yearlong initiative Beyond Sacred: Unthinking Muslim Identity, an interdisciplinary project that aims to illuminate the experience of culturally identified Muslims who have come of age in post-9/11 New York.

Performances of Beyond Sacred will take place April 29-May 9 (see above schedule) at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (31-10 Thomson Ave. Long Island City, NY). Critics are welcome as of the first performance on Wednesday April 29 for an official opening Sunday May 3. Tickets are $25 ($20 Student and Senior) and can be purchased at lpac.nyc or by calling 718.482. 5151.

Ping Chong + Company created Beyond Sacred with five young New Yorkers who self-identify as Muslim and perform the work: Amir Khafagy, a student activist at Queens College, Maha Syed, a recent graduate of Columbia University with a masters in International Affairs; Ferdous Dehqan whoimmigrated to America from Afghanistan in 2013 at the age of 18; Kadin Herring originally from South Carolina, his father came to Islam through Malcolm X and Nation of Islam, converting in the 70s, and his mother is Baptist; and Tiffany Yasmin Abdelghani who grew up in Florida. Her family is from Trinidad. She was raised Christian, and converted to Islam in her mid-20s.

Beyond Sacred was created using Ping Chong + Company's Undesirable Elements methodology. Conceived by Chong, Undesirable Elements is an open framework that can be brought to any community and tailored to suit the needs and issues facing that community. Each production is made with a host organization based in the local community, with local participants testifying to their real lives and experiences. Since 1992, under the rubric of its Undesirable Elements series, the beloved Ping Chong + Company has created over 50 deeply moving theater productions that give voice to specific communities. In the creation of each piece, local participants testify to their real lives and experiences, often for the first time. Scripts are based on interviews with these participants, who then tell their stories in the final production.

The five participants in Beyond Sacred vary in many ways, but share the common experience of coming of age in a post-9/11 New York City, at a time of increasing Islamophobia. Participants come from a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds and include men and women that reflect a wide range of Muslim identities, including those who have converted to Islam, those who were raised Muslim, but have since left the faith, those who identify as "secular" or "culturally" Muslim, and those who are observant on a daily basis. The goal of Beyond Sacred is to illuminate daily experiences of Muslim new Yorkers, and work towards greater communication and understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim communities in NYC.

The Beyond Sacred season will be an exploration of Muslim identity through the lens of music, theatre, and dance that will facilitate an open dialogue between Muslim and non-Muslim communities, and will challenge the assumptions of group identity. Through Beyond Sacred: Unthinking Muslim Identity, LPAC will further its goal of incorporating pertinent social justice work into its multidisciplinary arts programming.

LPAC is just one of six college and university arts presenters, and the only community college presenter, to receive funding to carry out community projects that expand awareness of Muslim arts and culture. Beyond Sacred: Unthinking Muslim Identity is made possible by the Building Bridges: Campus Community Engagement grant from of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.

Ping Chong + Company produces theatrical works addressing the important cultural and civic issues of our times, striving to reach the widest audiences with the greatest level of artistic innovation and social integrity. The company was founded in 1975 by leading theatrical innovator Ping Chong with a mission to create works of theater and art that explore the intersections of race, culture, history, art, media and technology in the modern world. Today, Ping Chong + Company produces original works by a close-knit ensemble of affiliated artists, under the artistic leadership of Ping Chong. Productions range from intimate oral history projects to grand scale cinematic multidisciplinary productions featuring puppets, performers, and full music and projection scores. The art reveals beauty, precision, and a commitment to social justice