Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Announces Fall 2013 Theatre Season

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the CUNY Graduate Center has announced its Fall 2013 season of public programs. Following the 10th anniversary of the Center's wildly successful PRELUDE Festival (attended by over 2,500 audience members), the season continues with 14 free public programs throughout the Fall, featuring Contemporary Theatre and performing artists from around the world.

Highlights from the Segal Center's Fall 2013 season of programs include:

· A Reading of Heiner Müller's Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome October 24: Directed by leading American avant-garde director RoBert Woodruff, the evening will feature Müller's adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, in a new translation by Carl Weber and Paul David Young.

· Changing Brooklyn: The Impact of BAM November 4: An evening with Harvey Lichtenstein discussing the legacy of his leadership as a champion of new and progressive art works.

· The Martin E. Segal Center at PERFORMA 13 November 10-24: The Segal Center is proud to feature two legendary artists and an artistic collective for their contributions to performance: Spain's Fernando Arrabal, experimental poet Christopher Knowles, and Poland's Akademia Ruchu. Events will be held at the Segal Center and throughout the city, in partnership with PERFORMA 13.

· Facing our Truth-Short Plays on Trayvon, Race, and Privilege December 5: An initiative of The New Black Fest, the evening will feature the work of Dominique Morisseau, Winter Miller, Dan O'Brian + Quetzal Flores, Marcus Gardely, Mona Masour + Tala Manassah, and A. Rey Pamatmat.

All events (unless otherwise noted) are presented at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, New York, NY 10016. All are free of charge and open to the public. First come, first served. Dates and times are listed below. All programs are subject to change. For updates, please visit www.theSegalCenter.org.

FALL 2013 FULL SEASON LISTING

October 16: Celebrating the Life and Work of Herbert Blau

The Segal Theatre

3:00pm Screenings | 6:30pm Discussion

Late director, scholar, and theorist Herbert Blau is widely considered one of the American theatre's most original and influential thinkers. Co-founder of the legendary San Francisco Actor's Workshop (1952-65), Blau introduced American audiences to the playwrights of the European avant-garde, including Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Harold Pinter. Under Blau's influence, the Actor's Workshop attracted a younger generation of ground-breaking theatre artists as well. R.G. Davis, founder of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, was a Workshop member, as were Lee Breuer and Ruth Maleczech, who co-founded the Mabou Mines. Among Blau's many achievements was the American premiere of Brecht's Mother Courage, as well as his world-famous production of Beckett's Waiting for Godot at San Quentin prison, San Francisco. Discussion panelists include Joseph Roach, Bonnie Marranca, Chris Fisher, and Dick Blau.

October 24: A Reading of Heiner Müller's Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome

The Segal Theatre

6:30pm

Heiner Müller, a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director, was once described as "the theatre's greatest living poet" since Samuel Beckett and is known as one of the most important dramatists of the 20th century after Bertolt Brecht. In 1984, Müller adapted Shakespeare's first tragedy Titus Andronicus into Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome. Interspersing the dialogue with a chorus-like commentary, the adaptation was heavily political and made reference to numerous twentieth century events, such as the rise of the Third Reich, Stalinism, the erection of the Berlin Wall and the attendant emigration and defection issues, and the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. Müller removed the entire first act, replacing it with a narrated introduction, and completely rewrote the final act. This reading is directed by leading American avant-garde director RoBert Woodruff and features a translation by Carl Weber and Paul David Young, recently published in Heiner Müller After Shakespeare by PAJ Publications.

October 28: Celebrating María Irene Fornés

The Segal Theatre

6:30pm

The work of Cuban-American avant-garde playwright and director María Irene Fornés (born May 14, 1930) is closely associated with the establishment of the Off-Off-Broadway movement in the 1960s. Her focus on the themes of poverty and feminism catapulted her onto the New York and interNational Theatre scene. In 1965, she won her first of nine Distinguished Plays Obie Awards for Promenade and The Successful Life of 3. She was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize with her play And What of the Night? Other notable works include Fefu and Her Friends, Mud, Letters from Cuba and Sarita. Fornés became one of the most influential and beloved playwriting teachers and mentors in both Hispanic-American and experimental theatre. The evening is co-curated by Morgan Jenness, Lou Moreno, and INTAR Theater, and features an excerpt from Michelle Memran's documentary in process The Rest I Make Up.

November 4: Changing Brooklyn: The Impact of BAM

The Segal Theatre

6:30pm

Join us for an evening with Harvey Lichtenstein, the internationally recognized driving force behind the Brooklyn Academy Of Music. Harvey Lichtenstein has been a leader in the New York arts for 50 years. Beginning with early positions at New York City Ballet and New York City Opera, Harvey returned to his native Brooklyn in 1967 to begin his tenure at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, setting a new course for the institution and helping to change the cultural landscape of New York while gaining an international reputation as a champion of all that is new and progressive in the arts: dance, theatre and music. The event is part of the GC Public Program's initiative "Cultural Capital: The Promise and Price of New York Creative Economy."

November 6: Mel Gordon: Shakespeare on the Experimental Russian Stage

The Daniel Gerould Memorial Lecture

The Segal Theatre

6:30pm

The Segal Center welcomes theatre historian Mel Gordon (UC Berkeley) for a re-discovery of Shakespeare productions on the avant-garde Soviet stage from 1924-1935. These state-sponsored interpretations attempted to integrate political ideology with radically new ideas in directing, acting and set design. Gordon's illustrated lecture will include rare or "lost" film footage from Michael Chekhov's Hamlet (1924), the Vakhtangov Theatre's Hamlet (1932), Aleksandr Tairov's Egyptian Nights (1934), and the Moscow State Yiddish Theatre's King Lear (1935). The lecture is presented in memory of Daniel Gerould (1928-2012), Lucille Lortel Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at The Graduate Center, CUNY and Director of Publications of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.

November 6: Akademia Ruchu: Chinese Lesson / Chinska Lekcja

Presented as part of PERFORMA 13

The Segal Theatre

7:00pm

Join us for Akademia Ruchu's Chinese Lesson / Chi?ska Lekcja, a performance composed of a series of five- to ten-minute pieces involving five members of the group. Originating from thirty years of Akademia Ruchu's experience in building their own visual theatre language, the performance adopts a unison form that is unique to the company. Operating at the juncture of theatre, performance, film and fine arts, Akademia Ruchu (the Academy of Movement), has been the sounding board of Poland's political life since its establishment in 1973 in Warsaw. Founded by Wojciech Krukowski, the collective's artistic director, and consisting of artists Janusz Ba?dyga, Jolanta Krukowska, Cezary Marczak, Jan Pieni??ek, Zbigniew Olkiewicz,Jaros?aw ?wirblis, and Krzysztof ?wirblis, for almost forty years Akademia Ruchu has engaged in insightful reflection on communist and post-communist Poland. Co-presented by the Polish Cultural Institute New York. T

November 11: Fernando Arrabal: About Alfred Jarry and 'Pataphysique

Presented as part of PERFORMA 13

The Segal Theatre

10:00am Screenings |6:30pm Discussion

Fernando Arrabal, a self-described "desterrado," "half-expatriate, half-exiled," was born in Melilla, Spain, but settled in Paris in 1955. He was a friend of Andy Warhol and Tristan Tzara and spent three years as a member of André Breton's Surrealist group. In 1962, Arrabal co-founded the Panic Movement with Alejandro Jodorowsky and Roland Topor, and was elected Transcendent Satrap of the Collège de 'Pataphysique in 1990, putting him in the company of Marcel Duchamp, Eugène Ionesco, Man Ray, Boris Vian, Dario Fo, Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard. Arrabal has directed seven full-length feature films; he has published over 100 plays, 14 novels, 800 poetry collections, chapbooks, and artist's books; several essays, and his notorious "Letter to General Franco" during the dictator's lifetime. Screenings will include Arrabal's films Viva la muerte, andL'Arbre de Guernica, among others. Discussion will feature Iñigo Ramirez de Haro Valdes and others. Presented in collaboration with Spain Culture New York- Consulate General of Spain.

November 14: Kroeber + Camp: After the Show

A Forum on Transgressive Theatre

The Segal Theatre

2:00pm Symposium | 6:30 Evening Program

Why do the experimental performing arts persist in making "shows," rather than encounters, parades, meals, businesses, vehicles, protests, games or vacations? Why, after turning away from "theatre" and "drama" to terms such as "contemporary performance," are artists still performing for theatrical audiences in black boxes? After the Show, organized by Robert Quillen Camp and Gavin Kroeber, looks at both persistent concepts and institutional forces that produce a constrained vision of theatre's rightful domain and form. The event stages discussions about practices, both real and fictive, that challenge the model of "the show". Through a series of presentations, staged debates and thought experiments, the program will attempt to imagine and inhabit the theatre that might come "after the show". The day includes contributions from David Levine, Aaron Landsman, Odyssey Works, Woodshed Collective, Karinne Keithley-Syers, Jim Findlay, Yelena Gluzman, and others.

November 23 + 24: The Sundance Kid is Beautiful with Christopher Knowles

Presented as part of PERFORMA 13

Whitebox Arts Center | 329 Broome Street, New York NY

7:30pm both evenings

The Sundance Kid is Beautiful with Christopher Knowles features the artist performing a selection of rarely-shown works, including The Sundance Kid is Beautiful and texts from Einstein on the Beach in a multimedia environment that incorporates recent poetry and sculpture. The performance combines elements of a theatrical vocabulary with Christopher Knowles's delicately patterned texts to create a scenography that extends the structured logic observed throughout his two and three-dimensional practice into a performative domain. This very special event, which makes its New York premiere after opening at the Louvre as part of Living Rooms, is made possible by the support of Gavin Brown's Enterprise. It is staged by Noah Khoshbinand produced by Andrew Gilchrist, with dramaturgy by Lauren DiGiulio, art direction by Eugene Tsai and audio direction byBryce Kretschmann. Originally commissioned by The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at The Graduate Center, CUNY, it is presented in collaboration with The Watermill Center, with additional support from The Segal Center.

November 25: A Tribute to Franca Rame

The Segal Theatre

6:30pm

When Franca Rame died on May 29, 2013 such was her renown as a stage performer, playwright, and left-wing activist that obituaries appeared in newspapers throughout the world, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Times(London). A central force in cabaret theatre, the cooperative theatre movement, and feminist theatre in Italy, she authored works that were translated into many languages. She collaborated closely with the actor-playwright Dario Fo throughout their almost sixty-year marriage. Fo called her his muse and openly asked her to share his 1997 Nobel Prize at the award ceremony in Stockholm. This tribute will include short readings in English and videos selected from Rame's many feminist monologues, which include Lo stupro (The rape), in which she dramatized her 1973 kidnap and rape by Italian fascists; Una donna sola (A woman alone); and Tutta casa, letto e chiesa (It's all housework, bed and church). The evening features independent scholar Dr. Jane House and Ronald Jenkins.

December 5: Facing our Truth: Short Plays on Trayvon, Race, and Privilege

An initiative of The New Black Fest

The Segal Theatre

6:30pm Readings + Discussion

In light of the murder of Trayvon Martin, The New Black Fest commissioned a diverse group of playwrights to write 10-minute plays reflecting on the tragedy. With these plays, The New Black Fest's wish is that serious discussion is incited in our communities around these urgent issues. The evening will feature the work of playwrights Dominique Morisseau, Winter Miller, Dan O'Brien with Grammy Award-Winner Quetzal Flores, Marcus Gardley, Mona Mansour and Tala Manassah, and A. Rey Pamatmat. Readings will be followed by a discussion with the playwrights, The New Blackfest's Artistic Director Keith Josef Adkins, and others. The evening and initiative have are made possible, in part, through the support of the ALLIANCE THEATRE (Atlanta), The Goodman Theatre (Chicago), Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles), National Black Theatre (New York), Lookingglass Theatre (Chicago), African Continuum Theatre (Washington D.C.), and others.

December 9: We are Proud to Present... An Evening with Playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury

The Segal Theatre

6:30pm

Join us for a look at the work of young New York-based playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury. Jackie's plays have been developed at Sundance, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, A.C.T., The Soho Rep Writer/ Director Lab, New York Theatre Workshop, Trinity Rep, The Civilians, The Lark, The Magic Theatre, The MacDowell Colony, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Orchard Project, and Cape Cod Theatre Project. She is a graduate oF Brown's MFA playwriting program, where she was awarded the David Wickham Prize in Playwriting. Jackie received the 2012-2013 Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists, is the inaugural recipient of the The Lark's 2012-2014 Jerome Fellowship, and was recently awarded the Stavis Playwriting Award from the National Theater Conference. The event will feature mixed media from past productions of her work, as well as readings and glimpses of works-in-progress, followed by a discussion with Shira Milikowsky (Director; Artistic Associate, A.R.T) and Geoffrey Jackson Scott (Director of New Play Development at Victory Gardens), and others.

December 12: The Censorship of Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour | The ACLU's First Gay Rights Case

Elebash Recital Hall, The Graduate Center, CUNY

6:30pm

In response to the recent Supreme Court decision striking down a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act in the ACLU's Windsor case, the Segal Center will present Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour, interspersed with dramatic reinterpretations of one of the first court cases to focus in the censorship of gay and lesbian content in literature and art. The 1934 play was the subject of one of the first landmark court cases to address the censorship of gay and lesbian subject matter; after meeting huge success on Broadway, it was slated to run in Boston but was banned by the city's public censor because of its "lesbian content." In 1936, the play's producer and the ACLU teamed up to challenge the ruling in federal court, marking the ACLU's first "gay rights" case and bringing the public censor under intense public scrutiny. While the play's ban was upheld by the courts, gay rights and the censorship of gay and lesbian themes in the arts became part of the public conversation. Followed by a discussion with Amanda Goad, Staff Attorney, LGBT and AIDS Project, American Civil Liberties Union, and others.

December 18: An Ideal Theater for an Ideal City, with Author Todd London

The Segal Theatre

6:30pm

Join us for an evening with author Todd London (Artistic Director of the Tony Award- winning institution New Dramatists) to discuss his new book: An Ideal Theater: Founding Visions for a New American Art (TCG). Todd London will be joined by a group of artistic directors who forged their own theatre in New York to discuss the citywide impact of their work. The book is a wide-ranging, inspiring documentary history of the American theatre movement as told, at the time of its making, by the visionaries who forged it. This anthology collects over forty essays, manifestos, letters, and speeches each introduced and placed in historical context by noted writer and arts commentator Todd London, who spent nearly a decade assembling this collection. This event is part of the GC Public Program's initiative "Cultural Capital: The Promise and Price of New York Creative Economy."

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About us:

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC) is a non-profit center for theatre, dance, and film affiliated with CUNY's Ph.D. Program in Theatre. The Center's mission is to bridge the gap between academia and the professional performing arts communities both within the United States and internationally. By providing an open environment for the development of educational, community-driven, and professional projects in the performing arts, MESTC is a home to theatre scholars, students, playwrights, actors, dancers, directors, dramaturgs, and performing arts managers from the lo­cal and interNational Theatre communities. Through diverse programming-staged readings, theatre events, panel discussions, lectures, conferences, film screenings, dance-and a number of publications, MESTC enables artists, academics, visiting scholars and performing arts professionals to participate actively in the advance­ment and appreciation of the entire range of theatrical experience. The Center pres­ents staged readings to further the development of new and classic plays, lecture series, televised seminars featuring professional and academic luminaries, and arts in education programs, and maintains its long-standing visiting-scholars-from-abroad program. In addition, the Center publishes a series of highly regarded aca­demic journals, as well as books, including plays in translation, written, translated and edited by leading scholars.www.theSegalCenter.org

Executive Director, Director of Programs / Frank Hentschker

Managing Director / Rebecca Sheahan

Co-Director of Programs / Allison Lyman

MESTC Next Generation Fellow / Sarah Stites

Director of Publication / Marvin Carlson

Director of Digital Initiatives; Website / Kimon Keramidas

Assistant to the Managing Director / Brad Burgess

The Graduate Center, CUNY, of which the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center is an integral part, is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York (CUNY). An internationally recognized center for advanced studies and a national model for public doctoral education, the school offers more than thirty doctoral programs, as well as a number of master's programs. Many of its faculty members are among the world's leading scholars in their respective fields, and its alumni hold major posi­tions in industry and government, as well as in academia. The Graduate Center is also home to twenty-eight interdisciplinary research centers and institutes focused on areas of compelling social, civic, cultural, and scientific concerns. Located in a landmark Fifth Avenue building, The Graduate Center has become a vital part of New York City's intellectual and cultural life with its extensive array of public lectures, ex­hibitions, concerts, and theatrical events.