Blessed Unrest Presents THIS IS MODERN ART

Who decides what art is and where it belongs, and what is the role of race, class, and pedigree? THIS IS MODERN ART, the acclaimed and controversial 2014 play by Idris Goodwin and Kevin Coval, based on the 2010 "bombing" of the Art Institute of Chicago by an underground graffiti crew, is making its New York debut. The production by Blessed Unrest is directed by Jessica Burr and performing as part of the inaugural season of Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop (79 East 4th Street between Bowery & 2nd Ave., New York, NY 10003.) A preview will be held on June 2, with the opening night on Sunday, June 3rd, and performances running Thursdays thru Mondays to June 23. Tickets are $20 for the shows on June 2-4; $25 June 7-11; and $35 June 14-23, and can be purchased at https://www.nytw.org/show/this-is-modern-art/.

THIS IS MODERN ART, based on real events from 2010, was written by Idris Goodwin (winner of 2017 National Blue Ink Playwriting Award) and the acclaimed poet Kevin Coval under commission from Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater where the play premiered. A crew of artists of color, believing they will never be invited into the hallowed Art Institute of Chicago, decide to introduce themselves. They paint a fifty-foot graffiti piece on the towering wall of the Institute's New Modern Wing in the middle of the night in twenty minutes. These marginalized young men, aided by the white girlfriend of the crew leader, risk everything to make their voices heard, defying our assumptions about what art is and where it belongs. This Is Modern Art ignited a fiery debate about race, privilege, and representation after being called "irresponsible" and "potentially damaging" by Chicago Sun-Times' Hedy Weiss.

"The production of This is Modern Art in New York City is a story of an aesthetic renegade child coming home," say playwrights Idris Goodwin and Kevin Coval. "The whole planet saw what young people here were doing in the early 1980s, taking graffiti from the walls in Philly and applying and developing its styles on trains. We watched Style Wars and cheered for young people around the planet as they began to adapt, adopt and translate the cultural message into their own local vernaculars. Now we are tremendously excited that the hip-hop's Mecca welcomes back its descendants. We look forward to seeing how the culture morphs, elevates and continues," they further explain.

Blessed Unrest brings their award-winning, trademark physicality to a play that has wowed audiences in Chicago, Denver, New Haven, and Houston. The set design features a stage-filling original graffiti piece painted for the production by legendary NYC street artist KEO XMEN, lighting design by Miriam Nilofa Crowe (a regular collaborator with such artists as four-time Grammy-winner Rosanne Cash and a Grammy and Latin Grammy-winner Lila Downs), sound design by Adrian Bridges, and set design by Matt Opatrny. The cast consists of returning Blessed Unrest collaborators J. Stephen Brantley (recently seen in the 2017 production of A Christmas Carol, and known as playwright and a recipient of 2017 Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award), Nancy McArthur (Snow Queen, 2018) and Ashley N. Hildreth (Platonov, 2018) as well as the actors making their debut with the company: Andrew Gonzalez, Shakur Tolliver, and Landon G. Woodson.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Blessed Unrest is in its 17th season of generating original theatre in NYC and touring internationally. They create safe environments where dangerous things can happen, producing dynamic, disciplined, and exuberant new works for the stage with their culturally diverse ensemble. They teach their approach to physical and devised theatre at universities across the country. Among their awards are four New York Innovative Theatre Awards (twelve nominations) including the Cino Fellowship for Sustained Excellence, the LPTW Lucille Lortel Award, and first prize at the 2016 Secondo Theatre Festival (Switzerland).The company's work has been praised for "magnetism and electricity" (TimeOut NY) and "physical ingenuity and visual artistry" (NYTheatre.com). blessedunrest.org

Jessica Burr (Director) is the founding Artistic Director of Blessed Unrest. She was honored with the 2011 Lucille Lortel Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women, in recognition of her work as a director and the body of work that Blessed Unrest has created under her leadership. She received the 2013 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Choreography/ Movement and was a nominee for the same in 2015. She was a featured panelist at the 2016 Brave Summit, a forum of women leaders, experts, and scholars to drive cultural change. She has directed and choreographed numerous productions and workshops for Blessed Unrest including A Christmas Carol and The Snow Queen (developed with New Victory), Platonov (in new translation and adaptation by Laura Wickens), Body: Anatomies of Being (with the New Ohio Theatre), Lying (2015 IT Award nominee), Doruntine (First Prize, 2016 Secondo Festival, Switzerland) and The Sworn Virgin (both in NYC and on international tours, co-directed with Florent Mehmeti of Teatri Oda, Kosovo), Eurydice's Dream (2013 IT Award winner), The Storm, ArtCamp SexyTime FootBall, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Measure for Measure, the 365Days/365Plays Festival. Burr has taught workshops and/or directed at Stephens College (MO), Eastern New Mexico University, Centenary College (NJ), Prishtina University (Kosovo), Texas Tech University, and at the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival. She has degrees in theatre and dance from Bard College.

Idris Goodwin (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright, poet/performer and essayist. His play How We Got On, developed at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, premiered in Actors Theater's 2012 Humana Festival and is being produced in theatres across the country. His play Hype Man was awarded the 2017 Blue Ink Playwriting Award, and And In This Corner Cassius Clay received the 2017 Distinguished Play Award from The American Association of Theater and Education. Other widely produced plays include Blackademics and Bars and Measures. The Way The Mountain Moved, commissioned as part of Oregon Shakespeare's groundbreaking American Revolutions Series, will world premiere in 2018. Goodwin is one of seven playwrights featured in the widely presented HANDS UP!, an anthology commissioned by The New Black Fest and published by Samuel French. He has work commissioned by or in development with The Public Theater, Steppenwolf Theater, The Kennedy Center, Seattle Children's Theater, Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor Program, La Jolla Playhouse, The Lark Playwriting Center, The Playwrights' Center, and New Harmony Project. He's received support from the NEA and Ford Foundation and is the recipient of InterAct Theater's 20/20 Prize. These Are The Breaks (Write Bloody Press, 2011), his debut collection of essays and poetry, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Goodwin's poetry has featured on HBO, The Discovery Channel, Sesame Street, and National Public Radio. Goodwin is an assistant professor in The Department of Theatre and Dance at Colorado College. Idrisgoodwin.com.

Kevin Coval (Playwright), called "the voice of the new Chicago" by The Chicago Tribune and proclaimed "the city's unofficial poet laureate" by The Boston Globe, is the poet/author/editor of several books and an active member and unofficial historian of the Chicago hip-hop community. He is the only poet to garner equal praise from the likes of ninety-six-year-old author Studs Terkel and actor and rapper Mos Def. His recent volume of poetry, The People's History of Chicago, which celebrates the history of this great American city from the perspective of those on the margins, landed him the wide national acclaim and an appearance on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Kevin's other books include Slingshots (A Hip-Hop Poetica), Everyday People, and The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. Coval is a founder of Louder Than A Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival and the Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors (which won a MacArthur Award for Creative & Effective Institutions in 2016.) Coval teaches hip-hop aesthetics at The University of Illinois-Chicago. He is a four-time HBO Def Poet and has written for a wide variety of publications, including CNN.com, Huffington Post, and Poetry Magazine; he also co-hosts the podcast The Cornerstore on WGN Radio. His second playwriting collaboration with Idris Goodwin, Human Highlight: An Ode To Dominique Wilkins, has just been published by the Haymarket Press. http://kevincoval.com/

KEO (of XMEN) aka SCOTCH 79 (Scenic Artist) is a bona fide Brooklyn legend, graf writer/visual artist/MC, in the realm of NYC graffiti and hip-hop. KEO came of age in the Brooklyn of the 1970s and learned his craft in the tunnels and yards of the MTA subway system. He is well known for his actions with the X MEN crew during the early to mid-1980s. KEO frequently hit the IRT division at the famed Kingston lay-up in Brooklyn. In the late 1990s, he continued to write for X MEN and has participated in the resurrection of two legendary crews of the 1970s: The 3 Yard Boys and The Odd Partners. KEO has taught private instruction, summer youth classes at the Wyandanch Public Library, Paint Straight programs in conjunction with the New York Department of Probation, as well as Art Therapy at Rikers Island's Adolescent Reception and Detention Center. KEO has given workshops at Brooklyn Friends School and been a guest Lecturer at Rutgers University, The Jewish History Museum, The Schomburg Center, St. Francis College, and many other institutions. https://www.widewalls.ch/artist/keo/

Next Door at NYTW provides a home for companies and artists who are producing their own work. Meeting the artists where they are in their process, this initiative provides each project with subsidized resources and space for development and performance in the newly renovated Fourth Street Theatre. As part of an ongoing effort to expand support for artists at every stage of their careers, this series will serve nearly 100 additional artists in the first year alone.

Due to the building's landmark status, the Fourth Street Theatre is not a wheelchair accessible space. There are eight stairs leading from the street level to the main floor of the building where the theatre is located.

Photo via: https://www.nytw.org/show/this-is-modern-art/

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