GENERATION RISE to be Presented by PCC and Urban Word NYC

Ping Chong and Company, founded by the influential theater-maker Ping Chong and a home for a diverse, intergenerational group of affiliated artists, partners with Urban Word NYC for a preview presentation of the latest Undesirable Elements work, Generation Rise, commissioned by New Victory Theater/New 42 (June 17, here). This filmed virtual theater work shares real-life stories of six Black and POC teenagers, during the year 2020-2021-bridging reflections on their early lives in New York City with discussions of the significance of a year of growing up during a global pandemic and renewed calls for racial justice. Intended for ages 11+.

Generation Rise was co-written and co-directed by Sara Zatz and Kirya Traber. The creative team includes Richard Louissaint (Visual Director), Tanya Barrett (Production Coordinator), and Ta-Shea Brown (Motion Graphics Designer). The cast includes NYC teens Ashlie, Farah, Kilhah, Nathaniel, Sanaa, and Serena. The performers range in age from 16-19, and come from across New York City: Harlem, East New York and Clinton Hill in Brooklyn, South Jamaica and Queens Village in Queens, and Westchester Square in the Bronx. The teens, who include 4 current high school students and 2 college students, were invited to participate through Urban Word NYC, the New Victory Usher Corps, and NYC public school teachers. Due to the online nature of the performance, the teens are being identified by first name only, to protect their privacy.

Stemming from a live performance as part of a visual arts installation by Ping Chong at Artists Space in 1992, Undesirable Elements became a touchstone of Ping Chong and Company's work, connecting its artists and process with local communities across the globe in an ongoing series of interview-based theater productions in which people tell their own stories of place, identity, and belonging. Generation Rise continues their collaboration with New Victory following the Undesirable Elements performance Generation NYZ, likewise centered the voices of New York teenagers and was described by Laura Collins-Hughes, in a Critic's Pick review for The New York Times, as a "gentle, humane, powerfully moving work."

For the new project, Ping Chong and Company teamed with Urban Word NYC to work with young (and in some cases new) performers/storytellers to speak to the hardships and hopes of our shape-shifting, tumultuous present. Throughout the creative process, the youth-some of whom were performing in a theatrical work for the first time-collaborated with Sara Zatz and Kirya Traber, who together co-created Generation NYZ, and who compiled one-on-one interviews and collective conversations with performers into a dynamic script. Fostering a deep sense of community and comfort among participants is fundamental to the Undesirable Elements process-a particular challenge for a remote theater-making. For this work, participants developed community agreements to nurture a sense of trust sharing intimate stories and perspectives with strangers they had only met online-and having their words woven together into a single work. Cast members contributed to the editing and revision process, and had final approval over their respective parts of the script.

During their time making Generation Rise, the six teens also participated in Urban Word NYC's poetry workshop, Generation Phoenix: Tales of Transformation (led by Darian Dauchan, award-winning poet, actor, and Loop Station Vice Champion of the American Beatbox Championships). This provided a space and opportunity to process, share, and explore personal experience in order to find community through the power of poetic storytelling and creative resilience.

Ashlie, a New Victory Usher with the New 42 Youth Corps, who comes from Harlem said, "There was a sense of accountability for everyone which made being vulnerable easier. This vulnerability showed me not only that I have a story, but that it was ok for me to share! There was an overarching theme of community during this process which shines through in the final piece. This shows how many teens have similar thoughts and a persistent drive to enact some form of change. This is what we want to give to the public and to other teens across the world."

Serena, the 2021 NYC Youth Poet Laureate who hails from Queens Village, adds, "A general philosophical change this year is more people than ever are confronting the fact that humans are collective by nature and there's no such thing as individual thriving or individual failing. Public health crises put that into stark relief and make it really obvious. Because even if you're healthy you have an impact on the rest of society's health and vice versa. I think that this idea of collectivity came to the forefront in 2020, and it's a big part of Generation Rise."

Farah, a New Victory Usher from Clinton Hill, , said, "Through Generation Rise, I learned and met people I'll never forget, and I got to speak about topics that I've never had the right people to talk to about. It made me realize how much young adults need safe environments like this to share their stories."

Kirya Traber says, "Undesirable Elements as a form has its own process and rhythm but in the before-pandemic-times it still shared the same DNA of all theater works-of folks gathering together, physically, in a space and creating a company intimacy. I've worked with young people at this point for over 15 years-and I've never worked with young people where I haven't met them in-person. For a young person to be open to me asking, 'tell me about your life,' virtually, requires so much trust. It has been a big leap of faith, and I'm so grateful for the generosity that these folks have given us."

Sara Zatz adds, "Generation Rise was also unique in that we were processing the events we were discussing in real-time. The creation of Undesirable Elements works is often more reflective, but so much of this show was about one year, one pandemic that we were all still in. We were trying to keep up with the violence that was happening in the country, trying to make sure the script and the film were living processes,in order to allow the cast members to feel their authentic voices and evolving stories were reflected in the final script.

Urban Word NYC Interim Executive Director Shanelle Gabriel says, "So often, adults are the only narrative voices we consider when documenting history. This production places those who in many ways were impacted the most, our young people, in the center of the narrative that will be reflected on for generations to come. This story captures so many facets of their experiences, past and present, and we are so excited to give them the platform to be fully human and fully able to paint pictures through words in such a creative way. It shows how even via a virtual world, we are capable of truly connecting through our stories."

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