Plays in Mirror Stage's EXPAND UPON Series Tackle Income Inequality and the Wage Gap

Mirror Stage's Expand Upon series engages the community in meaningful dialogue, while enabling local artists to develop artistic responses to important issues. For Expand Upon round seven, the community selected the theme Income Inequality and the Wage Gap. Mirror Stage commissioned The EPICC Differential by Mary E. Brown, and Deep Veins by Nelle Tankus. Performances of Expand Upon: Income Inequality will be online October 15, 16, 22, and 23-Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2:00pm, Pacific.

Directed by Associate Artistic Director QuiQui Dominguez, Expand Upon: Income Inequality features actors Rosslyn Cornejo, Hazel Rose Gibson, Andrew Litzky, Alex Lee Reed, Anubhouti Sood, Steven Sterne, and Matthew Sythandone. The two plays are presented in tandem, as simply staged readings, encouraging audiences to create their own imagined world inhabited by the plays' characters. A moderated discussion with the artists and audience, exploring the issues raised in greater depth, will follow every performance. Every performance offers 20 FREE tickets (first come, first served) plus 10 Pay-What-You-Can tickets ($1 minimum). Tickets are also available at "Select Your Own Price" of $5, $15, or $30. For tickets and more information, please visit MirrorStage.org.

Income inequality refers to the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population, whether segmented by gender, ethnicity, geographic location, occupation, and/or historical income. In the United States, the income gap between the rich and everyone else has been growing markedly, by every major statistical measure, for more than 30 years. Income disparities are so pronounced that America's top 10 percent now average more than nine times as much income as the bottom 90 percent, according to data analyzed by UC Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez. The top 1% in the U.S. average over 39 times more income than the bottom 90 percent, and the nation's top 0.1 percent are taking in more than 196 times the income of the bottom 90 percent.

About Mary E. Brown, playwright-The EPICC Differential

Mary E. Brown is a playwright, teacher, and active participant in various disciplines within the Seattle theater community. She teaches drama classes at schools, sharing her processes and passion for storytelling and her love of the theater world with the next generation. Brown graduated from the University of Arizona with degrees in Secondary English Education and Drama Education. Her most recent performance, "When a Tree Falls," will be released soon on video.

About Nelle Tankus, playwright-Deep Veins

Playwright Nelle Tankus is a self-identified working-class, white, Jewish, Romani, trans-woman who describes her work as queer, absurd, and transformational. She is a graduate of the Cornish College of the Arts Original Works Program and hasn't stopped writing since. Her work has been seen at Annex Theater, Gay City Arts, Pocket Theater, Mo Wave Queer Arts Festival, and at IRT Theatre New York.

About Mirror Stage

Originally founded in 1991, Mirror Stage is a multidisciplinary arts company using the power of creative storytelling to challenge assumptions, bias and prejudice, increasing equity and inclusion while encouraging more thoughtful reflection on today's issues. We nurture unique artistic voices while providing opportunities for newly emerging artists to work alongside more seasoned professionals. Mirror Stage gets people talking as well as thinking. For more information, please visit https://mirrorstage.org.

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