Ping Chong and Company Present UNDESIRABLE ELEMENTS 30th Anniversary Symposium at The New School

The renowned Ping Chong and Company (PCC) joins The New School's Eugene Lang College and College of Performing Arts for a two-day symposium on February 3 and 4, 2023, celebrating the 30-year history of the company's groundbreaking interview-based, community-engaged theater series Undesirable Elements. The celebration brings Undesirable Elements cast members, presenters, creative collaborators, producing partners and colleagues in the field of documentary theater to the university to lead courses, panels, and student workshops, culminating with an evening performance from a new work in progress, Undesirable Elements: Ukraine. The symposium was coordinated by Victoria Abrash, Part-Time Assistant Professor, Theater, Eugene Lang College, who will also lead a 1-credit undergraduate course on Undesirable Elements.

Undesirable Elements is a series of interview-based theater productions by PCC that features local community members telling their own stories of place, identity, and belonging. Unlike a traditional play or documentary theater project performed by actors, Undesirable Elements is produced with local partner organizations and features local community members as on-stage participants. Presented as a chamber piece of storytelling, the production's development is shaped by an extended community residency during which PCC artists conduct intensive interviews with the local participants and develop the script based on the cast members' experiences. The script is performed by the interviewees, themselves, who have final approval of content, many of whom have never before spoken publicly.

Since 1992, over 65 productions have been made in communities across the country and around the world, exploring issues such as the experience of immigrants and refugees in the U.S., the experience of living with disability, Muslim American identity, and the experiences of survivors of sexual violence. Recent productions have looked at living with chronic illness and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth of color in New York City.

The emphasis on spotlighting local community members and their experiences connects with the core elements of the theater programs at Lang College and the College of Performing Arts, which prioritize investigations into the relationship between theater and social justice and how it can be used to address current events. The programs embody The New School's tradition of progressive education through intellectual and artistic inquiry while simultaneously posing questions about today's critical issues. Social justice is embedded in the theater program curriculum of seminars in theater history and theory, dramatic literature, and performance and production opportunities.

The upcoming symposium is part of a milestone Ping Chong and Company season including the retirement of Ping Chong and Executive Director Bruce Allardice from the Company, at the end of 2022, on the occasion of the 50th year of Chong's career; and the announcement, on January 11, of Talvin Wilks, Nile Harris, Jane Jung, and Sara Zatz as the new Artistic Leadership Team that will chart the Company's next chapter.

"Ping Chong and Company are a global treasure. They have created new forms of artistic practice and illuminated our world in ways that only the arts can do. Lang College and the College of Performing Arts are grateful to be able to partner with Ping Chong and Company on this rich and rewarding two-day symposium, celebrating the landmark work, Undesirable Elements, while also recognizing the historic Ping Chong season, with the retirements of Ping Chong and Bruce Allardice, Executive Director," said Richard Kessler, Executive Dean of the College of Performing Arts."

"I am thrilled to collaborate with the College of Performing Arts in hosting Ping Chong and Company at The New School. PCC so wonderfully exemplifies what we aspire to at Lang: to engage the mind and the senses in addressing urgent political and social challenges that are both global and local. This fantastic residency is sure to expand our sense of what activist, community-oriented theater can be." said Christoph Cox, Executive Dean of Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts."

All events are free and open to the public. Please visit the symposium event website for more information

To post a comment, you must register and login.