The Segal Center to Highlight Arab Classic Plays & Classic Plays by Black Playwrights
By: BWW News Desk Apr. 06, 2017
All readings and discussion will take place at the Martin E. Segal Theatre, located at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street (Subway: Herald Square, lines B, D, F, M, N, Q, R). These events are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED. NO RESERVATIONS.
For updates, visit www.theSegalCenter.org.
ARAB CLASSIC PLAYS:
Featuring works by three of the
Arab world's most renowned playwrights:
Yusuf Idris/Egypt l Issam Mahfouz/Lebanon l Sa'dallah Wannous/Syria
April 19, 2017
2:00pm + 4:30pm + 6:30pm Readings followed by an evening discussion
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents, ARAB CLASSIC PLAYS, featuring works by three of the Arab world's most respected playwrights - Yusuf Idris (Egypt), Issam Mahfouz (Lebanon) and Sa'dallah Wannous (Syria) - who made indelible marks upon the contemporary Arab landscape with their complex and nuanced writings on the timeless issues of power and politics, yet who are relatively unknown to the Western world.
The afternoon and evening readings on Wednesday, April 19, helmed by NYC-based directors NJ Agwuna, Rania Khalil, and Sara Rademacher, will be followed by a discussion with the event's curator Joy Sarah Arab (Producer), Marvin Carlson (Graduate Center, CUNY), Kareem Fahmy (Director/Playwright), Philip Himberg (Sundance Institute Theatre Program), Christian Parker (Columbia University), Ted Ziter (Tisch School of the Arts, NYU), Salma S. Zohdi (Dramaturg), and moderated by the Segal Center's Frank Hentschker.
Dates and times are listed below. All programs are subject to change.
Wednesday, April 19
2:00pm
Sa'dallah Wannous (Syria)
The Adventure of the Head of Mamlouk Jabir (1971)
Translated by Robert Myers and Nada Saab. Directed by Rania Khalil.
The Adventure of the Head of Mamlouk Jabir was completed in 1971, several months after Hafez al-Assad seized power. The play is perhaps most notable for its use of a hakawati, a traditional Arabic storyteller, as a narrator in a traditional gathering place in the Arab world, a coffee house, who tells the story-within-a-story--a form derived from Eastern frame tales like 1001 Nights.
4:30pm
Issam Mahfouz (Lebanon)
The Dictator (1969)
Translated by Robert Myers and Nada Saab. Directed by Sara Rademacher.
The Dictator is an absurdist classic. A minimalist mixture of Ionesco, Plautus, and Beckett, with fierce and frequently hilarious jabs at despotism in the Arab world, The Dictator was a revolutionary work when it was written in the 1960s and continues to speak to the revolutions and reversals unfolding in today's Middle East.
6:30pm
Yusuf Idris (Egypt)
The Flipflaps (1964)
Translated by Trevor LeGassick. Directed by NJ Agwuna.
?Known as Yusuf Idris's foremost absurdist work, The Flipflaps (Al-Farafir) was written during a time of great change and challenge in Egypt and caused a literary uproar for two weeks in 1964 before it was banned. The Flipflaps is a two-person dialogue between a master and a slave. The slave, Flipflap, imparts Idris's social, political, moral, and metaphysical ideas through allusions and symbols.
Classic Plays by Black Playwrights:
CLASSIX
Featuring works by
Alice Childress l Kathleen Collins l Bill Gunn l Ron Milner
May 22 + May 23, 2017
4:30pm + 6:30pm Readings and discussion
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, located at The Graduate Center, CUNY, will present readings of rarely seen plays by Black playwrights on Monday, May 22 and Tuesday, May 23.
CLASSIX: A READING SERIES CELEBRATING CLASSIC PLAYS BY BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS, at the Segal Center on Monday, May 22 and Tuesday, May 23 - features plays by Alice Childress, Kathleen Collins, Bill Gunn, and Ron Milner, who are just four out of a long line of writers whose extraordinary plays were produced in the 20th century. This series celebrates classic plays that feature dynamic characters, extraordinary dialogue, and compelling stories-all written by an eclectic group of Black writers, whose plays speak to their own time in a way that deeply resonates with our own. Curated by NYC-based director, Awoye Timpo. The readings will be followed by a panel discussion.
Dates and times are listed below. All programs are subject to change.
Monday, May 22
4:30pm
What the Wine-Sellers Buy by Ron Milner
Written in 1974, What the Wine-Sellers Buy was originally produced by Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival at Lincoln Center. The play centers around Steve Carlton, a carefree high school student, who wrestles between his dream to become a professional basketball player and the other possibilities in his life.
6:30pm
Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childress
A timeless and thrilling play, Wine in the Wilderness (1969) revolves around a young girl who befriends an artist in the midst of painting his triptych. In this piece Childress explores the depths of Black womanhood.
Tuesday, May 234:30pm
The Forbidden City by Bill Gunn
Bill Gunn's final play, The Forbidden City, premiered at New York's Public Theater in 1989. Set in the 1930s the play reckons with the nature of family and the excesses of love and power.
6:30pm
The Brothers by Kathleen Collins
In this memory-drama Collins weaves together a series of scenes and monologues about black men who "should have been born white' because they "spent their entire lives trying to jump out of their skins.' The Brothers (1982) was originally produced by the Women's Project at the American Place Theater.
For the latest updates, go to www.theSegalCenter.org.
Originally founded in 1979 as the Center for Advanced Studies in Theatre Arts (CASTA), The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center was renamed in March of 1999 to recognize Martin E. Segal, one of New York City's outstanding leaders of the arts. The Segal Center curates over thirty events throughout the Spring and Fall academic seasons, all free and open to the public. Dedicated to bridging the gap between the professional and academic theatre communities, the Segal Center presents readings, performance, lectures, and artists and academics in conversation. In addition, the Segal Center presents three annual festivals (PRELUDE, PEN World Voices: International Pay Festival, and The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance) and publishes and maintains three open access online journals (Arab Stages, European Stages, and The Journal of American Drama and Theatre). The Segal Center also publishes many volumes of plays in translation and is the leading publisher of plays from the Arab world. The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC) is a vital component of the Theatre Program's academic culture and creating in close collaboration a research nexus, focusing on dramaturgy, new media, and global theatre. Faculty members and students are involved in many of its activities: its Executive Director is a central faculty member. Each semester the Segal provides institutional support to often more than 10 visiting scholars from around the world. Doctoral candidates and field leaders, these visiting scholars often become part of the global fabric of the Segal Center, contributing to the Center's live programming, live streaming, online presence, and printed materials through their scholarship and ideas. The Segal Center provides an intimate platform where both artists and theatre professionals can actively participate with audiences to advance awareness and appreciation. Visit www.thesegalcenter.org for more information.
THE GRADUATE CENTER, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, 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. Go to www.gc.cuny.edu.
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