The Seeing Place Theater Announces Talkbacks For The Whistleblower Series

The Seeing Place Theater announce talkbacks for The Whistleblower Series, three plays in rep: The People VS. Antigone, I Am My Own Wife, and My Name is Rachel Corrie now through May 13, 2018 at the Paradise Factory, 64 E. 4th Street, NYC.

A talkback for The People VS. Antigone will be held on Saturday, April 28, 2018 after the 2pm performance. A talkback for My Name is Rachel Corriewill be held on Sunday, April 29, 2018 after the 4:30pm performance. Talkbacks for I Am My Own Wife will be held on Saturday, April 28, 2018 after the 5pm performance, and Wednesday, May 2, 2018, after the 3pmperformance. Tickets to each show are $20 general admission ($30 Premium Seating, $10 5@50%) and are available at http://www.TheSeeingPlace.com, including discounted ticket packages to all three plays for $45.

The Seeing Theater's eighth Season has focused on bringing together stories that challenge the ways in which we relate to our fellow man. The season concludes with a triple-header: THE PEOPLE VS ANTIGONE, a world premiere adaptation by Brandon Walker, running in rep with two searing one-person shows: I AM MY OWN WIFE, the Tony Award winning play by Doug Wright and MY NAME IS Rachel Corrie by Katharine Viner and Alan Rickman from the writings of Rachel Corrie.

Each play in the Whistleblower Series explores the female protagonist as anti-hero. Each has mysteries around their actions with the public vilifying them and diluting their intended message. Additionally, all three plays explore international themes: Antigone is set in Greece, I Am My Own Wife is set in Germany but also has Americans, Russians and even the Japanese represented. And My Name Is Rachel Corrie has an American girl going to Israel/Palestine.

With THE WHISTLEBLOWER SERIES, The Seeing Place examines the fallout when someone in our society calls out tyranny. "Society likes to romanticize the whistleblower, but when an activist stands up and says 'NO' there is often more backlash than support," said The Seeing Place's Managing Director, Erin Cronican. "We see abuse victims shamed and activists killed, and yet most people believe in the tenets these whistleblowers have put forth. So, what explains this gap? Our ensemble is using these three challenging and polarizing plays to expose that gap and ignite a conversation - with the hope that empathy and deeper understanding will emerge."

Even though the plays of The Seeing Theater's 8th Season span a hundred years and countless generations of storytelling, the subjects broached, and lessons learned are achingly relevant today. TSP chose these plays to open up a dialogue with an audience about the world. How can we build on what we've learned from the people who've come before us?

THE PEOPLE VS ANTIGONE

An adaptation by Brandon Walker from the play by Sophocles

Directed by Brandon Walker

The Seeing Place presents a world premiere adaptation of Sophocles tragic story - THE PEOPLE VS ANTIGONE. A modern take on the classic myth, this new play explores a rebel daughter taking on the patriarchy: will she lose her life when she breaks Theban law by burying her dead brother's body against decree?

TALKBACKS

Saturday, April 28, 2018 (2pm)
Speaker: The Cast and Creative Team
Theme: Creating THE PEOPLE VS ANTIGONE

See the 2pm show and then stick around for a talkback that explores how the artists collaborated to bring THE PEOPLE VS ANTIGONE to life.

I AM MY OWN WIFE

by Doug Wright

Directed by Erin Cronican

Based on a true story, and inspired by interviews conducted by the playwright over several years, I AM MY OWN WIFE tells the fascinating tale of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a real-life German transvestite who managed to survive both the Nazi onslaught and the repressive East German Communist regime. Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize and the 2004 Tony Award.

Saturday, April 28, 2018 (5pm)
Speaker: Pooya Mohseni
Theme: The Legacy of Transgender Activism

See the 5pm show and then stick around for a talkback that explores the moral ambiguity in the play, I AM MY OWN WIFE. Get your tickets here.

Pooya Mohseni is an Iranian/American actor, Transgender activist and writer. She recently appeared in the WP Pipeline festival's production of "Galatea" . Her other recent stage appearances range from an award winning one woman show, "One Woman", in United Solo Festival, "The Good Muslim" at EST and Baltimore Center Stage's "The White Snake". She's a recurring guest star on the new drama "Big Dogs" produced by Choice Films to be released in 2018, and a recurring guest star in the first season of the USA network's "Falling Water". Follow @Pooyaland on Twitter/Instagram

Wednesday, May 2, 2018 (3pm)
Speaker: Peter Filichia
Theme: Acknowledging Moral Ambiguity

See the 3pm show and then stick around for a talkback that explores the moral ambiguity in the play, I AM MY OWN WIFE.

Peter Filichia has written reviews and features for a newspaper (The Star-Ledger), magazine (TheaterWeek), and the Internet (Playbill, Theatermania, Music Theatre International, Broadway Select, Masterworks Broadway and Kritzerland). He's written six books: Let's Put on a Musical (1991 first edition; 2007 second edition); The Biggest Hit of the Season/The Biggest Flop of the Season (2010); Broadway Musicals' Most Valuable Players (2011); Strippers, Showgirls, and Sharks (2013); and The Great Parade (2015). His one-act play Games, about bullying, has had high school productions in all 50 states. His full-length play, Adam's Gifts was a finalist for the first Terrence McNally Award. His ten-minute play Our Dead Classmate was produced in San Juan Capistrano this past winter. He has performed his one-man show A Personal History of the American Theater in many cities and towns in New York and New Jersey, as well as in Aspen, Boston and St. Louis.

He was president of the Drama Desk Awards from 1992 through 1996, and now serves on its current nominating committee, as well as the selection committee for the Lucille Lortel Awards and the Theatre World Awards, whose ceremony he annually writes and emcees. In 2009, he was chosen to be an assessor for the National Endowment for the Arts. Since 1995, he has been critic-in-residence for the Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music as well as the musical theater assessor for ASCAP's annual awards. On most Mondays, he can be heard as a podcaster on Broadway Radio.

MY NAME IS Rachel Corrie

by Katharine Viner and Alan Rickman from the writings of Rachel Corrie

Directed by Brandon Walker

On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, a twenty-three-year-old American, was crushed to death by an Israeli Army bulldozer in Gaza as she was trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home. In the three sold-out London runs since its Royal Court premiere, the piece has been surrounded by both controversy and impassioned proponents, and it has raised an unprecedented call to support political work and the difficult discourse it creates.

Sunday, April 29, 2018 (4:30pm)
Speaker: Leonard Jacobs, The Clyde Fitch Report
Theme: The Intersection of Art and Politics

See the 4:30pm show and then stick around for a talkback that explores the intersection of art and politics in the play, MY NAME IS Rachel Corrie.

Leonard Jacobs is Founder and Executive Editor of The Clyde Fitch Report, which produces and publishes opinion and reporting at the crossroads of arts and politics. He is also an adjunct professor in Baruch College's MA in Arts Administration program and has experience both in public service and in the private sector. Find him on social media: @clydefitch

Our name "The Seeing Place" is the literal translation of the Greek word theatron: ". . . the place where we go to see ourselves." The Seeing Place is a trained, actor-driven ensemble creating master theater, reinterpreted live, to make it relevant and accessible to audiences today. We live up to our name by engaging our community in a vivid conversation about what makes us human. Connection. Learning. Humanity. That's what theatron is all about.

The Seeing Place is an actor-driven company: built by actors and managed by actors to be a base for actors who want to hone their craft in a creative and supportive artistic home, resulting in unparalleled dedication and excellence.

We are forcefully committed to four key elements of theatre-making:

*Mentoring and developing the next generation of independent, socially-conscious theater-makers;

*Honoring the acting craft as central to the theater-making process, using the rehearsal practices of The Group Theatre to bring vivid, raw, "fully lived" storytelling to our community;

* Creating edgy and compelling reinterpretations of works by master playwrights that reflect the struggles and triumphs of our current society; and

* Making theater accessible for low-income New Yorkers by subsidizing 50% of our tickets.

Theater is society's hands-on, in-person study of human behavior. By placing a keen focus on behavioral storytelling, The Seeing Place has become well-known for intense and intimate ensemble work. Productions are rehearsed in a structured, organic manner, involving improvisation and heavy script analysis.

Through private funding and public fundraising events / campaigns, The Seeing Place ensemble feverishly fundraises in advance of each production so that it can subsidize all ticket prices to just $20 per ticket.