Subjective Theatre Company Presents JUMP JIM CROW; Opens Tonight, 12/8

The Subjective Theater Company (STC) would like to invite audiences to come and be absolutely scandalized and deeply offended by its third production of the 2009/2010 season, JUMP JIM CROW: HOW TO PRODUCE YOUR OWN MINSTREL SHOW.

Performances will run December 8th-20th at the Ukrainian Center. Shows are from Tuesday-Sunday. Shows running on weeknights and Saturdays are at 8:00 pm, 3:00 pm matinees will run on both Saturdays and Sundays (exception: there will be no 3:00 pm matinee on Saturday, December 19th). For reservations, email reservations@subjectivetheatre.org. Space is limited.

This show is the brainchild of Donya Washington with music and lyrics by Justin Levine and the book by STC's very own, Jesse Cameron Alick.

STC invites the audience to join us for a salacious, full-length musical instructional about the art of the minstrel show. Replete with comedy and pathos, mingled with TEARS and jokes and songs from antebellum America, reality television, and original instructionals like, "How to Identify The Common Negro Coon", and that ever popular game show - "Tom, Coon, Mulatto, Mammy or Buck!?", JUMP JIM CROW: HOW TO PRODUCE YOUR OWN MINSTREL SHOW will explore racism through minstrelsy, one of America's original art forms in a fresh and modern way. Grab some blackface and come wash your racist soul clean and WHITE! JUMP JIM CROW: HOW TO PRODUCE YOUR OWN MINSTREL SHOW promises to be an educational and entertaining time!

Playwright and STC's Artistic Director, Jesse Cameron Alick has this to say bout JUM JIM CROW: HOW TO PROUDCE YOUR OWN MINSTREL SHOW, "Although the idea that the election of President Obama has moved us into a "post-racial" era is a falsity, it is true that this period in history gives us an extraordinary opportunity to open up the dialogue about race relations in this country. Just ask Mr. Beck or Senator "You Lie" Wilson! The suppressed tensions that have been bubbling and churning in this country for two hundred years appear to be coming to the forefront of the national consciousness. People are finally being honest about how they feel about race - and this openness is revealing rage, bitterness, discomfort and a deep amount of fear. What better way to confront these issues than with a light hearted comedic musical?! We as a country will never get over the complex emotions that we're feeling unless we learn how to talk about them. JUMP JIM CROW: HOW TO PRODUCE YOUR OWN MINSTREL SHOW endeavors to start this conversation." 

CAST:

Rusty Buehler, BranDon Jones*, Jill Knox*, Lynneisha A. Ray, Haas Regen*, Kimberlee Walker, Edward Wardle, Joie Bauer, Alley Scott, Alaina Noel Feehan

*Indicates Equity member. Equity Approved Showcase

BAND:

Justin Levine, Matt Stoulil, Vinny Comisso, Lucas Cantor

CREW:

Lighting Design by Zach Murphy

Set Design by Edward T. Morris

Costume Design by Whitney Locher

Line Producer: Vanessa Sparling

BIOS:

Donya K. Washington (Conceiver and Director): New York: Penang by Jim Larocca (Boo Arts and NY Midtown Int'l Theatre Festival), Dear Diary by Alicia Ramsay (MCC Youth Company FreshPlay), Bear Market by Kara Manning (Women's Project Lab), Cold Keener (Target Margin), The Minstrel Show of Minstrel Shows! (Brown/Trinity Consortium), Poof by Apples Vargas (MCC Youth Company FreshPlay), 30 Patriot Actors by Erin Browne (Columbia), a reading of Menders by Erin Browne (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre), an excerpt from Busoni's Faust (Target Margin). Directed for the Norwalk/Westport Theatre Workshop (Westport Country Playhouse). Brown/Trinity Consortium: The Cure At Troy, Taming of the Shrew, Cloud 9. Brown New Play Festival: Forever Never Comes by Enrique Urueta, Cipher by Cory Hinkle. Williamstown: Before Breakfast, Unwrap Your Candy, Sorry Wrong Number. Worked with The Civilians as Assistant Director (Nobody's Lunch/Edinburgh, This Beautiful City/Vineyard) and Research Dramaturg (This Beautiful City). Recently, as assistant director: Leonard Foglia on Let Me Down Easy by Anna Deavere Smith (Second Stage). Training: MFA, Directing - Brown University/Trinity Repertory Consortium; BFA, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. Member of the 2008/2010 Women's Project Lab. Van Lier Directing Fellow 2009, Second Stage Theatre
Justine Levine (Composer) NY Acting Credits: Two Girls for Five Bucks at Ars Nova, Edgewise at the Cherry Lane, Co-creator/performer of Pepper and Sam: Death By Vaudeville. He is currently workshopping his musical, Bonfire Night, for which he has written book, music and lyrics. Recently, he received a commission from Naked Angels for a musical based on the life of Madam CJ Walker. This past spring, he was Music Director/Bandleader for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at the Public. He has also served as MD for Michael Cerveris, Liz Swados, Ars Nova, Naked Angles, EMP among others. When he is not working on theater, he plays and tours with Clinton Curtis. www.JustinLevineOnline.com
Jesse Cameron Alick (Book) Jesse Cameron Alick is poet, playwright and Zen Master. Jesse is the Artistic Director of Subjective Theatre Company (www.subjectivetheatre.org), is a playwright with Ensemble Studio Theater's Youngblood program (www.youngbloodnyc.org), is the Executive Assistant to the Artistic Director at the Public Theater (www.publictheater.org) and is Assistant to the playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. Jesse has had essays, articles and poetry published by High Contrast Review, XY, A&U, POZ, Courier Life, Smokin Word Publications and Random House. He has been commissioned to write work for Streetlight Productions, Freedom Train Productions, Working Man's Clothes and Subjective Films. His work has been heard at locations that include Cherry Lane Theater (Downtown Urban Theater Festival), Asian American Writers Workshop (co-produced by New York Theater Workshop), Collective Unconscious, Brooklyn Borough Hall, Museum of the City of New York (produced by Harlem Arts Alliance), CSV, Blue Heron, Bowery Poetry Club, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Ohio Theater, Dixon Place, 78th street theater lab, The Crystal Theater (MT), The Columbus Performing Arts Center (OH), The Poetry Café (UK) and Hip Heaven (UK).

ONGOING STC PROGRAMMING:
READING SERIES

The Subjective Theatre Company's Reading Series provides a forum for playwrights to develop their work in a collaborative working environment by providing opportunities to aspiring playwrights, directors, and actors. STC's Reading Series has been proved a successful spring board as during its first season, Mel Nieves' Iraq: WAC made its way to a west coast premiere in Los Angeles while STC gave Paul Mullin's An American Book of the Dead its east coast premiere in the Rubin Museum of Art's Brainwave Festival. Now moving into its second season, the Reading Series will present monthly readings at Under St. Marks as part of STC's residency with the Horse Trade Theater Group.
This reading series will run every second Monday from October 2009-April of 2010 (with a break in December).

SUBJECTIVE FILMS

On November 2, 2009 STC presented Scorpio's Night Out 2: Day of the Zombies a launch party for Subjective Theatre Company's newest division: Subjective Films, which is a film production branch of STC with Lucas Cantor at the helm as Executive Producer. At this party, we screened Subjective Film's current project, Handsome Zombies (directed by Jeffrey Whitted, written by Jesse Cameron Alick and Julia Holleman) which is a socio-political zombie movie about gentrification in Brooklyn. Episodes are currently viewable at handsomezombies.com
SUBJECTIVE THEATRE COMPANY

Subjective Theatre Company's mission is to produce a wide range of politically and socially relevant theatre FOR FREE. STC is founded on the principles that art is not a commodity, culture should be without class structures, art is without boundaries, and that theatre should always be available to everyone. STC is guided by a philosophy of accessibility and the belief that theatre plays a vital role in the development of individuals and communities. STC is dedicated to cultivating an environment where quality theatre can exist for people of every economic and social background.

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