The Dixon Place HOT! Festival Presents Tickets to Manhood

What makes a man a man? Is every adult male a man? Religion, imprisonment, gang violence, marriage, and military service shape the perspectives of adult males reflecting on their rites of passage. Tickets To Manhood examines the choices that boys make maturing into men. There is no formal rite of passage for boys entering adulthood in America today; the men of Tickets made choices that greatly affected the kind of adults that they eventually became. In many neighborhoods, prison and gangs involvement are viable options, and are sometimes seen as choices equivalent to more socially acceptable ones. The men of Tickets don't apologize for their choices they in fact explore them in great detail. A marine who returns from war a trained killer asks himself, who is he now? All the men ponder what made them a man, when that occurred and what kind of man they are currently.

"I began looking at classical rites of passage and noted that here in America" said creator James Scruggs, "there is not one universally accepted introduction to manhood today. When the draft was active there was the notion that boys went off to defend their nation and as a result, came back men. There is apparently a real need for some kind of transition experience. Boys are creating their own rites of passage. Urban youth all too often look almost romantically to prison experiences to deem themselves men. Gang involvement is also seen as a viable option. What I noted was that in these socially unacceptable forms of initiation the rites are identical to ones that are acceptable. Boys are sequestered away from their families; they are broKen Down, indoctrinated and built up again in a new image as a member of this New Group."

ABOUT JAMES SCRUGGS
James Scruggs was awarded a Performance Art Grant from Franklin Furnace in August of 2002. In March 2003 he became a resident artist at HERE Arts Center. Disposable Men, his solo performance, was produced by HERE in February 2005 and brought back for 4 weeks in June 2005. In February 2005 he received a fellowship from The New Jersey State Council on the Arts for artistic excellence. In September of 2005 He was awarded the first ever NY Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for his performance in Disposable Men. In February 2006 he was a resident artist with Mabou Mines. In December 2006 he was a featured American Playwright in a chapter contrasting his work with Suzan-Lori Parks called Interrogating America Through Theater And Performance, a textbook. In January of 2007 he performed as the lead actor in Thomas Bradshaw's Purity at PS 122. In March 2007 Disposable Men completed a three city tour, to Seven Stages in Atlanta, Perishable in Providence, and New World Theater in Amherst. He has also performed Disposable Men at The Painted Bride in Philadelphia. He performed a leading role in Pete McCabe's In The Company of Trees, at HERE Arts Center July 2007. He premiered his mixed media play (RUS)H, another collaboration with Kristin Marting and HERE Arts Center in February 2008 at 3LD. In March 2008 he performed the role of Old Man River in Lear deBessonets, On The Levee at Epic Theater in NYC. In June 2009 he performed Sancho in Lear deBessonets' site specific Quixote in Philadelphia, Pa. In 2010 he wrote and had a reading of his work Touchscape, a piece about men and socially deemed inappropriate touch at Harlem Stage's The Gatehouse, followed by a 3 week residency at The Baryshnikov Arts Center and a work in progress showing at Dixon Place. In January of 2011 he showed a work in progress showing of his latest work Tickets To Manhood at HERE Arts Center. Tickets To Manhood has been commissioned by Dixon Place and will be featured as the centerpiece of their 25th Annual LGBT Hot Festival in July of 2011. He is a board member of The New York IT awards, and Earthdance Retreat in Mass. He was on staff at The Field and continues to work with them independently. He has a BFA in Film from School of Visual Arts.

ABOUT DIXON PLACE
Dixon Place is a non-profit organization founded in 1986 to provide a space for literary and performing artists to create and develop new works in front of a live audience. While other venues of its kind have since died off, or now only present established artists, Dixon Place remains at the heart of the New York experimental performance scene. Taking risks is crucial to the life of Dixon Place, its artists and audiences.

Dixon Place's primary commitments are to bring artists and audiences together through live performance in order to expand the understanding of the creative process and its final product, and to provide a supportive environment for emerging artists to present new work. Over the last twenty-five years, Dixon Place has successfully maintained its intimate atmosphere and unique environment while increasing its programming to fulfill the need for performance opportunities for the New York community of performing and literary artists.

TICKET INFORMATION:
For reservations & advanced tickets visit www.dixonplace.org or call 212.219.0736.

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