Epic Theatre Hosts Arts & Human Rights Conference In Conjunction With PASSION PLAY

New York's OBIE Award-winning Epic Theatre Ensemble (Zak Berkman, Melissa Friedman, Ron Russell, Founding Executive Directors), Culture Project, Lark Play Development Center, Rising Circle Theater Collective and Center for International Human Rights, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY today announced that they will present a full-day Arts and Human Rights Conference on Tuesday, May 25. This interactive day of workshops will use theater that seeks to inspire academics, policymakers, humanitarian aid practitioners and artists to share experiences that illuminate the complexities and challenges associated with human rights and humanitarian work. This conference is the culminating event of Epic's Passion Play Festival, an ambitious series of performances, panel discussions, workshops, and education programs highlighting the intersection of art, politics, sexuality, and religion. The Passion Play Festival has surrounded the critically acclaimed New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play, directed by MarK Wing-Davey. Hailed by The New Yorker's John Lahr as "extraordinary" and full of "verve and daring," Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play is the result of a six year conversation between Berkman and Ruhl about how to stage her wildly imaginative and powerful triptych in a way that echoes historic passion pageants in the contemporary context of 21st Century New York City.

The conference will start at 10:00 a.m. using Grace, a new play by Deepa Purohit and Sanit De Silva, as the starting point for a dynamic dialogue arranged around the themes of The Moral Relevance of Boundaries, Empathy and Trauma and Healing. Grace depicts the journey of four people whose lives intersect at a refugee camp in Central Africa. The day will conclude with a 7:00 p.m. staged reading of Grace that is free and open to those not attending the workshop. All activities and performances will take place at the Irondale Center, a converted Sunday school inside the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church (85 South Oxford Street) in Fort Greene, Brooklyn where Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play is now playing. Reservations for the conference and that evening's performance of Grace can be made by emailing passionplaynyc@gmail.com.

Berkman explained, "Our goal for the day-long workshop is to create an environment where individuals who encounter one another in the context of human rights will have a chance to deeply examine key challenges involved in the work and to share the multiplicity of perspectives in addressing these challenges. We would like all those who participate to come away with a deeper self-reflection around their daily work, and a greater understanding of the problems and concerns of their colleagues around the table."

The Passion Play Festival is produced by an Epic-led Coalition of over 40 artists, arts groups, academic institutions and local community members. The Passion Coalition includes Above The Fold, ART/NY, Brave New World Repertory Theatre, Culture Project, Flux Theatre Ensemble, Frank's Cocktail Lounge, Gerald W. Lynch Theatre/John Jay College, Cara Greene, Irondale Ensemble Project, LAByrinth Theater Company Lark Play Development Center, Lincoln Center Theatre, Long Island University, Vernice Miller/Sarah K. Simmons from ALATetc., New Georges, Nora's Playhouse, NYU, Oberlin College Alumni Association, Page 73 Productions, Playwrights Horizons & The Play Company (A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick), Ripe Time, Rising Circle Theatre Collective, SAVE, Theater Three Collaborative, The Walter Thompson Orchestra, Waterwell, Wingspan Arts, and 13P.

Inspired by the historic festivals where everyday citizens came together to elevate their communities by staging the death and resurrection of Christ, Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play transports audiences first to 16th century England, where Queen Elizabeth threatens to shut down a small town's production; then to Nazi Germany, where Adolf Hitler's arrival at the famous Oberammergau Passion Play influences the lives of its cast and finally to Spearfish, South Dakota in 1984, as a local production becomes a campaign stop for a famous actor-turned-President running for re-election. MarK Wing-Davey will return as director following his highly acclaimed productions of Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play at the Goodman Theatre and Yale Repertory Theatre, but will be re-envisioning the play for this site-specific New York premiere.

Tickets are available by visiting Epic's website at www.epictheatreensemble.org.

Epic Theatre Ensemble is an OBIE, Lucille Lortel, and OTTO Award-Winning artist-run company. Founded in 2001 to create theatrical events Off-Broadway and in the New York City Public Schools that inspire vital dialogue about social issues, Epic is best known for their premieres of No Child... by Nilaja Sun, Palace of the End by Judith Thompson, and Hannah and Martin by Kate Fodor, as well as their groundbreaking Shakespeare Remix after-school program that received a 2009 Coming Up Taller Award from First Lady Michelle Obama at a White Ceremony this past November.

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